and International Trade declined to say if incidents involving Canadians prompted its travel advisory, which followed the department forbidding its employees from driving through the same region.

At least one couple cancelled plans to drive south this year because of the travel warning, which cautioned that vehicles similar to their 2002 Ford F150 pickup might be prime targets.

"It's just getting really bad," said Ann Goodwin, who had planned to drive with her husband to the Ajijic area after finishing a seasonal job in Kincardine, Ont.

Others have paid no heed to the warning, feeling safe driving through Mexico on modern toll highways during the daylight hours.

"I didn't even bother looking at the travel advisory," said Dixie Topham, an Ajijic resident originally from the Vancouver area, who recently drove the round trip from Mexico to British Columbia and back.

"We had no trouble, didn't see any violence. . . . We'd do it again," said expatriate Canadian Bob Sherritt, who drove north to visit a daughter in Arizona earlier this summer.

Longtime Ajijic resident and Toronto native Anthony Wilshere points out that attacks on foreigners are infrequent and other parts of Mexico such as the southern states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas have long been infamous for road bandits.

It remains uncertain if the ongoing drug war will dampen Canadians' enthusiasm for Mexico. Wilshere sees no evidence that it has so far.

"I've not seen any diminution (in interest) for six or seven years," said Wilshere, president of the local chapter of the Canadian Club.

"I've seen the opposite . . . People still come."

Expatriate Canadian Tom Gladney used to drive south from Toronto to this village of cobblestone streets and stunning lake vistas every year to spend winters in a part of western Mexico with a climate described as "perpetual spring."

He says he enjoyed the five-day journey through the United States, the deserts and mountains of northern Mexico and the agave-studded central highlands to Ajijic, an hour south of Guadalajara on the shores of Lake Chapala. And he confesses to having never felt unsafe during his travels, even taking his time after crossing into Mexico at Nuevo Laredo.

But with gory stories of drug-war violence streaming out of northern Mexico and the Canadian government recently issuing an advisory against travel through eight northern and western states, Gladney opted against driving this year and will instead take a commercial flight.

"These (news) stories now include names and places that we have to drive through," Gladney said.

"We just think that we don't have to take the risk. Why bother?"

Gladney, 69, is among a growing number of expatriate Canadians and snowbirds planning to leave their vehicles up north this year, although few of them express any reservations about wintering in Ajijic -- pronounced: "Ah-hee-heek" -- where an estimated 8,000 Canadians reside during the high season. Drug-war violence, locals say, has been absent.

"The only drug war down there is Viagra versus Cialis," quipped Bill Dingwall, a native of Unionville, Ont., who drove back from Ajijic in a five-vehicle convoy last spring and acknowledged he is considering flying south this year.

Northern Mexico is another matter. And so is the warning against travel through states such as Nuevo Leon, home of the increasingly insecure city of Monterrey, and Tamaulipas, which borders Texas and has been beset by a turf war between rival cartels. Drug-war violence has claimed more than 28,000 lives since December 2006, when the Mexican government launched a crackdown on organized crime.

Highway safety also has deteriorated of late. The country's trucking industry reports a 30-per-cent increase in attacks on cargo shipments this year and the kidnapping of at least 80 drivers.

At least five Canadians have encountered danger while driving in Mexico this year.

An Ontario couple, Jack and Michelle Vander Byl, were robbed of their pickup and trailer by armed bandits resembling police officers in Tamaulipas last spring, while Johanne Amonson and her elderly parents, Leslie and Trudie Amonson, all of Alberta, narrowly survived an August carjacking attempt near the Sonora-Arizona border at Nogales.

Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade declined to say if incidents involving Canadians prompted its travel advisory, which followed the department forbidding its employees from driving through the same region.

At least one couple cancelled plans to drive south this year because of the travel warning, which cautioned that vehicles similar to their 2002 Ford F150 pickup might be prime targets.

"It's just getting really bad," said Ann Goodwin, who had planned to drive with her husband to the Ajijic area after finishing a seasonal job in Kincardine, Ont.

Others have paid no heed to the warning, feeling safe driving through Mexico on modern toll highways during the daylight hours.

"I didn't even bother looking at the travel advisory," said Dixie Topham, an Ajijic resident originally from the Vancouver area, who recently drove the round trip from Mexico to British Columbia and back.

"We had no trouble, didn't see any violence. . . . We'd do it again," said expatriate Canadian Bob Sherritt, who drove north to visit a daughter in Arizona earlier this summer.

Longtime Ajijic resident and Toronto native Anthony Wilshere points out that attacks on foreigners are infrequent and other parts of Mexico such as the southern states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas have long been infamous for road bandits.

It remains uncertain if the ongoing drug war will dampen Canadians' enthusiasm for Mexico. Wilshere sees no evidence that it has so far.

"I've not seen any diminution (in interest) for six or seven years," said Wilshere, president of the local chapter of the Canadian Club.

"I've seen the opposite . . . People still come

Expatriate Canadian Tom Gladney used to drive south from Toronto to this village of cobblestone streets and stunning lake vistas every year to spend winters in a part of western Mexico with a climate described as "perpetual spring."

He says he enjoyed the five-day journey through the United States, the deserts and mountains of northern Mexico and the agave-studded central highlands to Ajijic, an hour south of Guadalajara on the shores of Lake Chapala. And he confesses to having never felt unsafe during his travels, even taking his time after crossing into Mexico at Nuevo Laredo.

But with gory stories of drug-war violence streaming out of northern Mexico and the Canadian government recently issuing an advisory against travel through eight northern and western states, Gladney opted against driving this year and will instead take a commercial flight.

"These (news) stories now include names and places that we have to drive through," Gladney said.

"We just think that we don't have to take the risk. Why bother?"

Gladney, 69, is among a growing number of expatriate Canadians and snowbirds planning to leave their vehicles up north this year, although few of them express any reservations about wintering in Ajijic -- pronounced: "Ah-hee-heek" -- where an estimated 8,000 Canadians reside during the high season. Drug-war violence, locals say, has been absent.

"The only drug war down there is Viagra versus Cialis," quipped Bill Dingwall, a native of Unionville, Ont., who drove back from Ajijic in a five-vehicle convoy last spring and acknowledged he is considering flying south this year.

Northern Mexico is another matter. And so is the warning against travel through states such as Nuevo Leon, home of the increasingly insecure city of Monterrey, and Tamaulipas, which borders Texas and has been beset by a turf war between rival cartels. Drug-war violence has claimed more than 28,000 lives since December 2006, when the Mexican government launched a crackdown on organized crime.

Highway safety also has deteriorated of late. The country's trucking industry reports a 30-per-cent increase in attacks on cargo shipments this year and the kidnapping of at least 80 drivers.

At least five Canadians have encountered danger while driving in Mexico this year.

An Ontario couple, Jack and Michelle Vander Byl, were robbed of their pickup and trailer by armed bandits resembling police officers in Tamaulipas last spring, while Johanne Amonson and her elderly parents, Leslie and Trudie Amonson, all of Alberta, narrowly survived an August carjacking attempt near the Sonora-Arizona border at Nogales.

Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade declined to say if incidents involving Canadians prompted its travel advisory, which followed the department forbidding its employees from driving through the same region.

At least one couple cancelled plans to drive south this year because of the travel warning, which cautioned that vehicles similar to their 2002 Ford F150 pickup might be prime targets.

"It's just getting really bad," said Ann Goodwin, who had planned to drive with her husband to the Ajijic area after finishing a seasonal job in Kincardine, Ont.

Others have paid no heed to the warning, feeling safe driving through Mexico on modern toll highways during the daylight hours.

"I didn't even bother looking at the travel advisory," said Dixie Topham, an Ajijic resident originally from the Vancouver area, who recently drove the round trip from Mexico to British Columbia and back.

"We had no trouble, didn't see any violence. . . . We'd do it again," said expatriate Canadian Bob Sherritt, who drove north to visit a daughter in Arizona earlier this summer.

Longtime Ajijic resident and Toronto native Anthony Wilshere points out that attacks on foreigners are infrequent and other parts of Mexico such as the southern states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas have long been infamous for road bandits.

It remains uncertain if the ongoing drug war will dampen Canadians' enthusiasm for Mexico. Wilshere sees no evidence that it has so far.

"I've not seen any diminution (in interest) for six or seven years," said Wilshere, president of the local chapter of the Canadian Club.

"I've seen the opposite . . . People still come