In summary - what was achieved?

Taking the bike to USA from Australia proved to be time comsuming and expensive.  

It was time consuming because of the provarication of US Customs in clearing the bike. It took several weeks. Weeks that would have been better spent travelling. Those weeks I spent in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.

Expensive because of the Carnet De Passage, global insurance costs, US shipping agents fee and storage costs while customs did their thing. Close to three thousand AUD dollars on top of freight fees.  BUT once I had my bike it was all go and relatively inexpensive. 

I decided against buying a bike in USA.  The exchange rate AUD to USD was not in my favour so buying a bike in USA was not a viable option when I wanted to go.

Getting the bike to Australia would have been problematic because of the need for an import licence. No regrets the way it panned out though. Sold the bike recently and got my money back. 

First part of the trip was to travel south and cross the border into Mexico. Every American I met thought me mad and cautioned me regarding the dangers facing tourists in Mexico.  Luckily my experience was a positive one.  A little bit of common sense and caution goes a long way.  Almost everyone I had dealings with was a good person keen to help and communicated in a courteous manner.  I admit that I did not go out much at night and I certainly did not travel at night - that helped I think.

The border crossings were always a bit of an ordeal.  Organised criminals operate, in collusion with officials I suspect, to maximise the money they scam from European travellers.  But hey if you can get through by paying an extra five dollars to grease the way - why not?  Standing by your principals and refusing to pay can make for a long day of official bullshit.

The pick of Mexico was in the south of the country - Oaxaca and San Christobel.

Not going to summaries the whole blog here. Have a read of the blog. 

Sorry for the lack of photographs posted for parts of Mexico, Gautamala, El Salvadore, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica - the SD card and the backup were both stolen.  Using internet cafes to download photographs to a blog was a pain because the quality of the hardware in these places varied so much - blogging on the run does not make for a particularly good product.

I recommend that if you plan on doing the trip I did please consider taking a companion.  Safety in numbers and plus there is a bit of fun to be had with shared experiences.  Can't wait to do it again.