OK, bear with me on this one, because it's a bit of a rambling question that, I suspect, will only provide subjective answers...

Having come up from Ushuaia we now find ourselves in Ecuador with 2 months remaining before we have to be back at work. Our original plan was to head to New York and ship back to the UK from there (I will not sell the bike, despite the obvious cost saving). I figure 2 months to get from Ecuador to New York would mean going at a fairly good clip - possible, definitely, just not with a lot of time to spare.

Another traveler we met who was heading south suggested that we could fly the bike from Bogota to Miami, which would give us plenty of time to explore Ecuador and Colombia (two countries we really want to see) and then allow us time to explore the US a little more than we had originally planned and spend time in the National Parks, maybe even ride coast to coast, which would be cool.

For various reasons (most of which are probably unfounded!) my wife and I just aren't excited about riding through Central America. I would like to see parts of Mexico (Baja, Copper Canyon), but that's about it. I hate corruption, corrupt cops and shitty border crossings (a speeding ticket puts me in a foul mood for days!).

I'm not so ignorant or prejudiced that I can't appreciate that the central american countries must surely be wonderful and have wonderful people, but my concern is that due to time constraints we'd have to stick mostly to the PanAm and not be able to explore these countries and get a good appreciation of them, thereby balancing out the negative experience of the border and cop hassles that we would surely come across.

There's a part of me that says 'come on fella, it will be an experience to go through that part of the world', but there's another side that thinks 'why put yourself through the hassle - this is meant to be fun' (this is our honeymoon after all!).

I know going straight to America isn't exactly adventurous, especially considering the company I'm in here on the HUBB, but as a new rider riding two up on dirt roads, sand dunes, through rivers and landslides, I feel as if I've had a fair amount of adventure already, and I don't want to spoil a fantastic experience by rushing through a string of countries just to get home. Additionally, I don't anticipate ever being able to have the opportunity to ride coast to coast across America again in my lifetime, so this has a certain draw for me.

Thoughts very much appreciated from those that have been there and done it - if you had your time again would you rather spend it in Ecuador, Colombia and America, or was CA the highlight of your trip?