Cartagena Transportation

There are a few companies offering shuttle service between Cartagena – Barranquilla – Santa Marta in air conditioned vans seating 8-12 people. The cost was somewhere around COP 50.000 (January 2009) though the price might went up since then. Still, by the time you pay for a taxi in Cartagena, the bus ticket and another taxi in Santa Marta, you likely will be saving almost nothing.

Mar Sol runs an hourly door to door van service from 6am until 4pm. What you do is call them, give your name, telephone number and tell where you are. I wanted to leave early in the morning with the first van. To be certain I had a place, I called them a day earlier. The van came to my hotel at the appointed time (5am). A couple was already in the car and we went around Cartagena picking up a few more passengers. We stopped at their office near the airport and then at 6am left on the coastal highway to Barranquilla. There was another van which continued the journey to Santa Marta. They dropped me off at bus terminal in Santa Marta where I was going to meet my Rola (this is how people from Bogotá are called) friend Donna. We continued together to La Guajira and Parque Tayrona.

4 more images

Flights between San Andrés and Cartagena are operated by two airlines, Avianca and AeroRepublica. Most of the flights with Avianca have connection in Bogotá (or even Medellin) and there is one direct flight with Copa (operated by AeroRepublica).

I took a direct flight with Avianca with the departure from San Andrés at 1:20pm and arrival to Cartagena at 2:50pm. I booked my flight three months in advance and one way ticket was US$ 157,60.

On arrival to Cartagena I took a taxi to the old town where hotel Porvenir was located. For safety reasons it's better to take an authorized taxi. You have to join a line of people waiting for a taxi. When it's your turn you tell the destination and they give you a paper with the destination and the price. It was COP 8.600 (January 2010). I showed it to the taxi driver and he delivered me to the hotel.

The supply of yellow taxis in Cartagena is abundant and cheap so if needed they are the preferred choice. This said, one does not need them within the boundaries of the old town so what is left are the so called Boca Grande development and Convento de la Popa /Castillo San Felipe direction. The first makes sense but the Convento is a bit awkward and the taxi drivers know it so tough negotiations are a prerequisite for not being gauged on the way. Airport rides are regulated and cost no more than 5USD.

Travel in the inundated countryside of Colombia must be rating between a challenge and ordeal but flying makes it a piece of cake. Moreover, there is the rare opportunity to see the Magdalena River, the Colombian version of Nile and marvel at her power and scale. What makes attractive flying even more are the prices of Avianca flights. In what seems to be a high season (Christmas), the one-way ticket Cartagena - Bogota sold for the equivalent of 60USD. The price includes new-looking airbuses and impeccable service.

Getting to Cartagena has never been easier. It has become such a destination that you can directly to it from some North American cities like Miami, close to where we used to call home. It's only a 2.5 hour flight from there and though affordable, often more expensive than flying to Bogota which is an hour further away. Most flights go via Bogota and a stop in the country's capital can be highly recommended if you have time.

We did not fly into Cartagena as we were on a two-month trip around Colombia and our main thing to do was a trek in El Cocuy National Park most easily reached by a long bus ride from Bogota. We made our way to Cartagena from the country's capital piecemeal but came most directly from Mompos just to the interior of the country's Caribbean coast and the area it is most closely associated with despite its distance from the sea. An 8 hour Brasila bus trip got us to Cartagena for the price of 40000 COP ($20) and involved a small ferry crossing.

Leaving town was a bit more convoluted since we not at the terminal for a convenient direct bus to our destination of Santa Marta. So, we had to jump on a bus to Baranquilla which took about two hours and cost 10000 COP ($5) each on Unitransco. This was a nice bus and fairly quick trip at just over 2 hours. That's when the fairy tale ended. Once in Baraquilla we were ushered onto a dilapidated old bus that should have never been “sold” as being air-conditioned. It was only 10000 COP ($5) for the two-hour trip but we gladly would have paid more for a nicer (and cooler!) bus. This all figured in prominently in our decision to not return to Cartagena for a flight south but to just fly from Santa Marta.

Of course, the only way to get around Cartagena is to walk. Otherwise, you're bound to miss out on a lot of the things you came to see in the first place.

http://ecoturismolospinos.com/html/Servicios.html
ECOTURISMO LOS PINOS IS VERY RELIABLE TRAVEL AGENT BASED OF ECO RESOURCES
VERY FRIENDLY GUIDES, VERY GOOD AND FAIR PRICED

ARRANGING TRANSPORT, TRANSFERS AND EXCURSIONS IN AND AROUND CARTAGENA

The day before going I booked my tour to Islas del Rosario, and paid, at the hotel where I was staying. The tour was 45 000 pesos (August 2008). That included boat transport and lunch, but not admission the aquarium.
Tour boats are leaving from Muelle Turístico. If you haven’t booked a tour in advance you can just show up in the morning as there are many boats leaving. Some are big boats taking up to 150 passengers, while others are smaller speedboats. And there are lots of tourists!
When you arrive at the muelle you must pay a port tax and entrance fee to the national park. This was 10 000 pesos in August 2008. We had been told what time to be at the port and were of course there in time, but we didn’t leave until much later, which was a bit annoying.
As I went with a smaller boat and they were going fast, the ride was very bumpy. And we speeded past the two Spanish Fortresses Batería de San Joe and Fuerte de San Fernando. We left some people at Playa Blanca and then went on to the islands. When we arrived at Isla de San Martín de Pajarales where the aquarium is I realised snorkelling was an option instead of visiting the aquarium. Well, I had already done some snorkelling and diving during my holiday so I went to the aquarium as I had intended to in the first place, but I think almost everyone else in the boat went snorkelling. Admission the aquarium was another 15 000 pesos. Then the boat tour went back to Playa Blanca where we had lunch (fish coconut rice and platanos) and spent the rest of the afternoon, before going back to Cartagena.

1 more image

Due to my limited time I chose to fly in from Bogota. Avianca has a number of flights into Bogota as well as a nonstop flight to Miami. Spirit Airlines flys to FL from here and Aero Republica and Copa serve Panama City. The flight takes just over an hour while the bus takes 19-20 hours. The airport, while modern does not have jetways which helps preserve the island like feel of the city.