Translation of quintaesencia

I understood that this was a real problem in this country and many foreigners came for sex tourism. Many bad stories had happened but my hosts were decent people. I could tell that right away.
The other visitors in my group were from the United States, Canada, Germany and from other parts in Mexico. I need to say that it was so much fun to meet people and spend an entire trip with them.
We could not find a nice hotel so we just took whatever we found in the center of town. We were a little upset with the entire stress, so that we had left our bags in the cab when it drove away.