Yahoo Lifestyle 
Couple raffle off luxury island for just $12
A couple are selling off their incredible adventure lodge on a luxury island for next to nothing.
Instead of listing their stunning multi-million-dollar island getaway for sale they are offering the chance for anyone who buys a buys a $12 ticket to win their extraordinary lifestyle and profitable business.
Dave and Suzanne have spent five years turning Casa Cayuco Eco Adventure Lodge, in Bocas del Toro, Panama, Central America into one that has been voted in the top five on TripAdvisor in Panama and in the whole of Central America.
The lucky winner of the 24-bed resort will become owner of four stand-alone cabins, a main lodge, two lodge suites, and an air-conditioned luxury owner’s suite.
Outside, Casa Cayuco comes with its own jetty and thatch covered sun terrace as well as everything you need to run a business, including commercial kitchen communication tower, laundry and maintenance building and three power boats, each over 23-foot long.
And if that’s not enough, British competition organisers WinThis.Life are offering a $50,000 cash injection to welcome the new owners.
Dave, 35, and Suzanne, 33, first arrived on the island in 2013 with just seven suitcases having decided to sell up from their home and corporate lives near Detroit, Michigan, USA.
Now the Smiths – along with their two-and-a-half-old daughter Mina - run a thriving resort which attracts everyone from honeymooners and families to eco-scientists and yoga retreaters.
“We loved the idea of island life, and after some research we found Casa Cayuco for sale and I contacted the owner, who lived remotely,” Dave said.
“He was coming down for his one week of the year at the resort and so I came down on my own for three days and we hit it off and when I got back we bought it. I guess it was an impulse buy, but it’s turned out to be amazing.”
The Smiths’ employ 14 indigenous people from the local village and Dave said they had become more of a family now as well as people that work for them.
The locals help with everything from cooking and spear fishing excursions, to helping build and maintain the resort itself.
And Dave and Suzanne’s immediate family has expanded too, with the birth of their daughter Mina who has spent her first years in paradise.
“It’s been amazing for Mina and we kind of envisioned having a family out here, that’s one of the reasons we wanted to move to raise our child in a really unique environment,” Dave said.
He said the couple’s reasons for moving on were because they wished to expand their family and build another resort from scratch in a different part of Panama.
“Now that we feel Casa Cayuco is a well-run operation and is truly ‘turn-key’, we're ready for a new adventure and want to build something from the ground up,” he said.
“We could hire managers to run Casa Cayuco while we took on the next project, but we think our next adventure will require all of our energy.
"We're pretty sure our next thing won't be as magical as Casa Cayuco, but the plan is to build something that affords us more family time.”
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