Genevieve Simms

I remark casually to a friend that I’m heading to Mexico next week. It’s my first time, and the plan is to see the “real” country; no all-inclusive resorts with compound walls and imported European beers. Larry, who owns a condo there and makes several trips every year, offers a bit of advice, “Be safe, and don’t get separated from your guide.”

It’s a telling comment. These days, Canadians have their worries about Mexico. Everyone’s seen the headlines — lately, they start with the phrase “Another Canadian killed in Mexico.” All told, at least six Canadian tourists have been killed under suspicious circumstances in the last three years; that combined with accusations of botched criminal investigations and police coverups would have any traveller on edge.

On the other hand, with its sunshine and warm weather, its rich cultural history and the relatively strong value of our dollar, Mexico remains Canadians’ most popular tourist destination next to the United States. Nearly a million of us visit every year, the vast majority without incident.

So what’s the verdict? Should we be worried? Though one person’s brief visit is hardly a barometer of the safeness of a vast country like Mexico, I’ll offer a few impressions. Mexico is a country at war. Taxiing into Benito Juarez International, you see the blacked-out planes of the Policia Federal, armed and bulletproof-vested officers stalking the terminal. In Mexico City, troop carriers with mounted machine guns patrol the Plaza de la Constitution. Meanwhile, newspaper headlines carry scorching stories of gruesome beheadings and assassinations in the states bordering the U.S. As we Calgarians have learned to appreciate in recent months, most of this violence and resulting tight security is linked to gangs and the drug trade — which in Mexico is multiplied by its unfortunate geography, smack in between the world’s largest source of drugs and its largest market.

You can’t help but be affected by all this news. There was one instance in which three of us, Calgary journalists, were watching some acrobats perform in a central park, and my companions got spooked by a collection of teenagers who appeared behind us. To this day, I don’t know if we were paranoid or smartly alert, whether those kids were well-adjusted teens enjoying a show or potential thieves eyeing their prey.

That said, I never personally felt threatened during my time there. Instead, my greatest impression of Mexico was of a place of beauty and heart. Particularly if you move away from the big city, you’ll find people with a strong sense of family and a sincere friendliness that is common and infectious. This I discovered in Oaxaca, one of the poorer states where life is still quite rural, and the people offer big smiles and warm hellos.

Ultimately, I suppose the key is to apply common sense and to err on the side of caution. It’s hard to extrapolate from a singular experience except to rely on the traveller’s refrain: Would I go back? In a word, absolutely.