Contact Admin. For most people, taking a vacation means returning home a week, or two weeks, later. But when Scott Kuhlman left behind the snowplows and cold weather of Detroit, Michigan, for a fishing trip in sunny Costa Rica, he decided not to return.
In , the small town of Jaco, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, was just what Scott was looking for. Soon after moving, he called upon his experience in Michigan and began working as a contractor; building, buying, and selling houses and golf courses.
The condos came, the marinas opened and the streets swelled with tourists. At that point Scott knew it was time to take another vacation. Eleven years after his first fishing trip to Costa Rica, in , Scott decided to go fishing with some friends in Puerto Armuelles, Panama, just 45 minutes from the Costa Rican border.
And for the second time in his life, he discovered a place he could see himself living. For Scott, Puerto Armuelles was a town that time seemed to have forgot. There were no high rises or shopping malls.
Although the beach stretches for miles, there were no condos or marinas. The streets were quiet, and the tourists were few and far between. It suited Scott from the get-go, and within a year he had successfully relocated.
