Lora herself had just returned from a cruise around Mexico and, after being accosted by aggressive panhandlers at the port of Cancun, she declared the favourite destination for Canadian sun seekers to be "lawless."
Luckily, this vacation would not be spent in a compound but in a luxury, three-bedroom condo owned by our friend Jeff Thomson, offered for rent by the El Taj complex in Playa del Carmen.
On the first day, we traded in our U.S. dollars at a money exchange hut on the quaint, cobblestone shopping strip along Primera Ave. Norte (1st Ave. North), for what seemed like a pocket o' plenty of pesos, then went scavenging for limes and tequila to fill the fridge.
Not yet well versed in how much a peso really was worth in Canadian dollars, we asked our taxi driver what tip seemed reasonable and realized a day or so later that the amount he claimed for himself wouldn't even buy a Tim Hortons doughnut at home.
A Mexican resort town where upscale clothing boutiques and nightclubs lend the downtown a very European vibe, Playa (pronounced ply-ya) attracts travellers carrying euros as well as those with dollars in their wallets.
It might not be surprising then that a cashier mistakenly handed over a blue-coloured 40-euro bill as change instead of a similarly coloured 40-peso note.
What was surprising, perhaps, given Mexico's supposed state of lawlessness, was that a waiter pointed out the difference between the two bills when we made the same mistake ourselves, then insisted on giving the much more valuable euro back.
We were discussing the honest disposition of those we had encountered thus far in Mexico's service industry as we drove past the posh Barcelo Maya Beach Resort on the way to a friend's villa near Tulum, home of the ancient Mayan ruins.
Dominic and Nancy Ianiero of Woodbridge, Ont., were staying at the Barcelo with family and friends prior to their daughter's wedding in February 2006 when they were murdered. (The murders are still unsolved but this summer police issued a warrant for the arrest of a security guard who worked at the resort at the time the Ianiero's bloodied bodies were found.)
The case was a lightening rod for fear among some that tourists were simply not safe in Mexico.
In fact, last year the U.S. State Department and universities around the country warned college students headed for Mexico for some spring-break partying about a surge in drug-related murder and mayhem south of their border.
More than 6,000 people were killed in drug violence in Mexico in 2008, the latest statistics available. The murder rate in Ciudad Juarez, a centre for the drug trade, has become the highest in the world, with an average of seven killings in the city every day for each month of 2009. The majority involve drug-gang members and not many drug lords are targeting tourists.
And so, despite the bloodshed, the number of foreign tourists visiting Mexico surged to 23 million in 2008, up 5.9 per cent from the year before, spurred in part by the tumbling value of the peso against the dollar, according to the country's Tourism Department.
"I think there are a lot of misconceptions about Mexico, particularly with North Americans," said our host Jeff Thomson, who visits Playa at least four times a year.
"Places like Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, San Cristobal and Playa del Carmen, where we are now, I would tell Canadians you have a better chance of being shot in Toronto than dying of any other cause in all of Mexico," he added.
"Tourists are a life blood here. They don't want trouble with tourists."
Nonetheless, we pull up to our beautiful four-bedroom, four-bath Villa Paloma on Tankha Bay, just north of Cancun, where we were to stay the night, and resolve to sleep with the sliding glass doors leading to our private balcony locked.
I don't know if it was the sun rising over the Caribbean or a craving for a glass of water after a hot day in the sun that woke us, but by dawn we were awake and scoping a man with a long stick moving in the shadows by the pool.
With a little trepidation we investigated further, but were pleased to discover that his weapon was in fact a rake and his purpose nothing more threatening than smoothing out the sand.
Relieved, we threw caution to the wind and threw open the doors to feel the ocean air caress our sunburned skin.
This is not to say that crimes are not committed in Mexico; they are. And sometimes tourists die there.
A Canadian man and woman were shot and wounded while cycling outside a resort north of Acapulco just last Tuesday when armed men tried to rob them.
In January 2007, a young Woodbridge, Ont., man was killed under suspicious circumstances. The same year, an Okotoks, Alta., man fell to his death from a fourth-floor balcony in Cancun after a night of drinking.
But even the U.S. State Department stopped short of warning spring breakers not to go to Mexico.
Instead, it advised them to avoid areas of prostitution and drug dealing and, perhaps most important of all, to use their common sense, always good advice for travellers to any destination.
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If you go . . .
How to get there: Hop a flight to Cancun, then take a short taxi ride from the airport to Playa del Carmen. Shouldn't take more than about 25 minutes. From Playa, you can rent a car and drive to Tulum, home of the famous Mayan ruins. It's just a 39-kilometre drive. You can get to Cozumel - a great place to snorkel - by ferry from Playa. Ferries run from 4 a.m. until 9 p.m. daily, and will get you there in less than an hour. Nearby Chichen Itza has a number of cenotes, or sinkholes with amazing clarity of water, which are great for swimming. The more adventurous can try cave diving in the underwater caves.
For more information: For details on safety, security, local laws, customs and entry requirements, check out the Foreign Affairs Canada website at: http://www.voyage.gc.ca/countries-pays/menu-eng.asp
About.com also offers tips on travelling safely in Mexico at: http://gomexico.about.com/od/planningandinformation/a/safety.htm
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