OK... I've gotten preliminary approval to take April 2005 off from work for a month-long trip.

I figure that I have three trip options: US-to-Alaska, the Contential Divide trip or US-Panama (or Panama-US).

I'm considering Panama. It's been a dream to see Central Ameria and I've seen parts of Mexico and Belize having driven down in 1997.

I don't think that 30-days is enough to do a US-Panama-US trip. Actually, it is if all you do is ride but that defeats the purpose 'eh?

SO, given this information, which way would you go? North-to-south or south-to-north?

My concerns are simple:

South-to-north:: I *think* I can ship the bike from the US down to Panama in plenty of time to arrive prior to my arrival. Getting it out of customs shouldn't be a difficulty and I start north without having a do-or-die deadline. In other words, if I get back on the 28th or 30th or even a few days late, I can deal with it. I haven't decided about air versus shipping but there's plenty of advice that points to air so I'm leaning that way.

North-to-south: To me, the biggest risk is dealing with shippers at the end of the trip. I've read about shippers agreeing to a price only to have the traveler leave the country, arrive home and find out that another couple of hundred is required to get the bike shipped out. The other part is that this imposes a pretty hard deadline. If you have to be there to get the bike shipped on the 28th and your flights on the 29th, you have more difficulties if you're late. I rather deal with those on the front end.

SO, any advice?

Best regards,
Gerry
PHX AZ

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Gerry
PHX AZ USA