None of my reasons for living in México that I outlined yesterday would count if I didn't genuinely like the country and the people.

My love affair with México started early, I can't remember my first trip as I was too young. I have seen a cute picture of me at about 2 yo with my parents in Tijuana. I'm sitting on one of those burros with my parents standing behind me, I think there was a huge sombrero in the picture somewhere as well.

As a teenager, every school break and summer meant a long trip to surfing beaches in the Baja or Sonora. When I was in my early 20s I ran away from life's complications to live in México and made it a year in México City. After that I made dozens of vacation trips south, sometimes camping and sometimes flying in to resorts. Once I fell in love with scuba I concentrated on the Caribbean coast and Cozumel.

So, when I retired and we bought the RV, it was so we could travel more in México and explore areas I hadn't seen. It's been 7 years of winters and 1 summer down here and we've been in all but 4 of the 31 Mexican states and spent considerable time in all but 6 of them.

One of the cool things about traveling in an RV is that you have your home with you and wherever you are you 'live' there. I would always fantasize about really living in every place we stopped, sometimes deciding right away that it was not suitable and other times feeling wistful when we left. In the back of my mind I knew that one day I would want to have a house again, mainly because we still have 2 macaws living in California that we miss and wanted to spend more time with. Also, the more dogs and now a cat that we adopt, the smaller this RV gets and we really are a little crowded in here now. Plus, I miss plants. It sounds odd but I do love growing things and having the time and the space to enjoy watching things grow.

During those travels I started a mental list of things I wanted in whatever place we decided to settle. I never got very organized about it, no surprise there, but I kept it in the back of my mind and graded places based on it. Here's my list.

1. International airport nearby with reasonable flights in cost and convenience to the US, mainly to California.

2. Excellent medical centers and top of the line hospitals and specialists. I'm not young and it is something that I knew I would need at some point.

3. Comfortable altitude. I'm a sea level person and probably also because of my COPD, high altitude is very tough for me. It's also usually pretty cold in the winter above a couple thousand feet.

4. Warm to hot weather. I want to live in a greenhouse basically.

5. A real city. When you live in an RV most of the time you live in a more rural or at least suburban area, RVs don't do well in big cities. That said, we once spent almost a month living in the RV in the city of Guadalajara very close to the Minerva glorieta. It was fantastic! We were parked next to a small park and in a friend's neighborhood. We enjoyed it immensely. I'm more of a city girl than a country girl. Yes, I like to garden but I don't like places where the sidewalks roll up in the early evening and where the options for music and art and information are limited. I like to vacation in those places, I don't want to live there.

6. An ocean. I grew up on the beach in Santa Barbara, California. I love the ocean and can't imagine living all the time away from it. México is blessed with coastlines on 3 very different seas; the Gulf of México, the Caribbean and the Pacific. I do prefer the Pacific in many ways, it's familiar and comfortable. The beaches on the west coast of Mexico were a big draw and we spent a lot of time over there. The Caribbean has incredible reefs, fish and water; there is nothing that compares to the color of the water and the powdery white sand of the Caribbean. No real waves though and if you are inside a reef it is shallow and often rocky on the bottom. I have less experience with the Gulf but the beaches we've camped on along it have been beautiful, warmer water than the Pacific and with sandy bottoms and a long shallow slide to the depths. I would be happy on any of them, that part was easy.

7. Interesting architecture and colonial roots, I want some history with my city. Luckily it is easy here in México to live with beautiful old colonial homes, extravagant cathedrals and churches, indigenous markets, artesanía and culture. It does eliminate the city of Cancun however.

In the end, there were only 2 cities that had everything and that I loved and could really envision living in. Guadalajara came in a very close second to Mérida. It's got everything except an ocean and it does get colder than I like in the winter.

What it does have though is a good road to the west coast that will put you on some beautiful beaches within a few hours. Renting or buying a house on the coast in the winter would be a good compromise and affordable. It's a much larger city, many millions in population, and with all those people come more crime and traffic and noise.

Then, there is the heart.

I fell in love with the city of Mérida much as I fell in love with San Francisco over 40 years ago. It's a city with a personality and style and presence. Just walking or driving the streets here makes me happy and I get almost giddy whenever I remember that I actually LIVE here.

Today I'm remembering how thankful I am that I have the opportunity to live awhile in this great city. Happy Thanksgiving to all.