Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - After 20 years of service, Lynne Benoit announced this week that, as of January 1, 2014, she will no longer work as Consular Agent of Canada in the Puerto Vallarta/Riviera Nayarit area.

In a statement, Lynne made a point of thanking her supporters and stated that Vallarta will always remain in her heart:

"I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the authorities and other people I have worked with in Jalisco, Nayarit, and Colima. For 20 years these people have helped me to efficiently serve Canadian citizens traveling or living in this region. Without their cooperation, passion, sense of humor, support, and mutual respect, it would have been impossible to resolve many of the consular cases.

Many of you have supported me unconditionally over the years as I organized events to raise funds for worthy causes such as the 'Terry Fox Runs' - I thank you with all my heart. I grew as a person with all of the shared experiences and life lessons I learned while assisting Canadians who were facing difficulties.

I am grateful to have had the privilege of being able to help so many Canadians and their families - to support them and provide compassion when they needed it. My greatest satisfaction comes from knowing that, most of the time, the assistance that I provided as the consular was sincerely appreciated, and that I helped to lower the stress and pain experienced by Canadians needing help while away from home. Of course there will always be difficult customers and people who criticize our work, but these people do not represent a significant percentage of cases and, in the end, we learn from these experiences also.

I could write a book on the many different, sad, funny, and sometimes rare consular cases that I have seen - as well as on the history of Canadian tourism in Puerto Vallarta! I never had the time to be bored. All of the challenges gave me the opportunity to do a very important job, and allowed me to give my best every day.

I arrived in Puerto Vallarta in 1986 representing agencies from Canada and took office as the 'Honorary Consul of Canada' in 1993. But 2014 will begin a new chapter in my life and the life of my daughter Marianick, who was born in Puerto Vallarta, as in the beginning of July we will be living in Canada. We are positive in meeting this new challenge and there's no doubt that Puerto Vallarta will be forever in our hearts and always the first place in our minds for vacations."