Cartagena Driver

nine inch nails says on Feb 27, 2008, 11:10:

I have one but he only speaks Spanish however my basic Spanish was enough to get me where I needed. He charged me the official rate on 20K COP for 1 hours tour of Crespo y no mas. Good guy too and knowledgeable. Would you like it?

get down, get down. are you afraid of the boogie monster?

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mjordan2169 says on Feb 27, 2008, 12:17:

yes please. what is COP and Crespo? i've never been to CTG. thanks a lot for the info.

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nine inch nails says on Feb 27, 2008, 12:42:

COP is Colombian pesos, right now about 1856 to the dollar and going down. Crespo is a coastal community near the airport when you fly in. Both are about 10-15 min. drive north of the old town. I'll send this evening when back home. All my trip stuff is there.

get down, get down. are you afraid of the boogie monster?

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tomtom33 says on Feb 27, 2008, 12:46:

Crespo is a barrio in the City of Cartagena.

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nine inch nails says on Feb 27, 2008, 12:48:

I liked it. Kinda laid back beachy to feel, at least the part near the ocean on other side of the highway.

get down, get down. are you afraid of the boogie monster?

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Aaron21 says on Feb 27, 2008, 13:11:

Mjordan, in my opinion you do not need one driver for Cartagena. The majority of cars on the road are yellow cabs. As long as you stay in the tourist areas you do not need to worry about which one you get into. The only thing I prefer is that they are air conditioned and a newer model - these are easy to find Cartagena. The only ride you will probably take that is more than 5000 pesos is from the airport to where you are staying - 10,000 to the old city and 12k - 15k to Bocagrande. Remember 5000 is roughly $2.75 right now. If you take a ride (for example from Bocagrande to the old city) and the cabbie wants you to pay more than 5000 (assuming you did not fix a price beforehand because of the language barrier) then just give him 5000 and get out of the cab - he will drive away. Also remember that if you do pay 6000 for a ride, you are "losing" approximately fifty-five cents. If you cannot afford to lose fifty-five cents on vacation you should not be in Cartagena anyway.

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nine inch nails says on Feb 27, 2008, 17:33:

MJ,

The name and number he gave me are Israel Gomez (652-0410, hm.) and he is older (maybe 60ish and mellow). Real nice with clean cab and cross hangin so thought he would be a good driver and he was. However A21 is correct. There are nice cabs all over the place.

I had to pay 15K COP from Airport to Bocagrande and 14K from Bocagrande back to airport. To and from the airport is the one trip they get you on.

get down, get down. are you afraid of the boogie monster?

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peteyw says on Feb 27, 2008, 20:10:

MJ,

I know an excellent guy. Honest, reputable, native english speaker and he's a very safe driver (too many of the taxi drivers here are living a Montoya fantasy and believe they're in Formula One and Cartagena is really the Monaco Grand Prix).

Shoot me an email and I'll send you his name and number, I don't feel comfortable posting someone's phone number on the web without permission.

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tomtom33 says on Feb 28, 2008, 02:59:

The airport tax is the reason for the big hit. If you walk two blocks from the airport, it will cost maybe 8K to Bocagrande.

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