Name: Ted and Nancy Novak
Ages: 55 and 56
Why they love it: Friendly people, good food and cold beer!

When we moved to Mazatlan from Minneapolis, our friends thought we were nuts.We find the weather perfect, the cost of living great, the life style wonderful and the medical care satisfactory. There's great walking, 335 days of sunshine a year, friendly people, good food and cold beer. That does it for us!

When we first came here, we rented a small apartment on the beach which was fun but too small. We bought a bigger place across the street. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and it about 1,600 square feet and all on one level. We never intended to live here full time so we kept a place in Minnesota. After two years we were sure we wanted to stay!

There are not as many gringos living in this part of Mexico and the prices for everyday items are much better here because it's a real functioning city and not a tourist town like Cancun. A beer is about a dollar and you can get a good mean -- like a fillet of fish, rice and vegetables all for about $10 including tax and tip.

You can still buy a nice house two blocks from the beach for less than $200,000. We live a very nice life style for about $30,000 a year but you could do it for much less.

As for health care, we have Blue Cross?Blue Shield which covers us here if we have an emergency. We were in the hospital for a night recently and it was adequate.

As Americans, we apply for a visa extension once a year which enables us to stay here without leaving and comming back and also allows us to keep our car here full time. It costs $100.