Below is a www.PoorButHappy.com posting by Tom Power, a guy with lots of good first hand information regarding the fast MarSol van round trip service between Cartagena and Barranquilla, then to Santa Marta. Tom's information about the Van service is better than we can report, so here is the current info:

tompower says on Thursday January 17th, 2008 4:38:

Cartagena-Barranquilla-Santa Marta Shuttle via MarSol, is a bus service that runs an hourly van service from Cartagena to Barranquilla then on to Santa Marta. They use Mercedes Benz vans that are all new. They seat no more than 13 people. They are a very organized and an impressive service.

What you do is call them, give your name and number and where you are located. My experience with them is only Cartagena to Barranquilla and return, but I'm certain the service is excellent all the way to Santa Marta. If for example, you are in a Cartagena hotel, call and reserve your time for the next available bus that meets there schedule. They run every hour from 6 a.m. till 4 p.m. to Barranquilla/Santa Marta. The van comes to your hotel and they go around Cartagena picking everyone up. Then they stop at the Cartagena office near the airport, and then they leave on the coastal highway to Barranquilla. When they arrive at Barranquilla they drive a route around the city to drop people off. They don't go all the way south in Barranquilla, they'll drop you off at a point as far south as they go. In Cartagena they won't go any farther from the center than pie de la Popa (where the monastery on the hill is). If the van is leaving the Cartagena office at 6 a.m. they start picking people up at 5am. If you call they'll say like be ready at 5:30 a.m . They always show up. I've never been stiffed and I've used them dozens of times. Sometimes if the passengers are from all over Cartagena they'll pick you up in a taxi and the taxi will take you to the office where you'll board the van before going to Barranquilla.

Best of all it only costs 19,000 Pesos (about u.s. $10.) and these guys know the highway. They fly through the security and speed traps, never take longer than 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to Barranquilla.

I know they're good because all the other van service companies try and steal their passengers. There's a Home Depot at the pie de la Popa and sometimes when I'm waiting there for the MarSol van, a competitive van company, will come by and say marSol sent them for me and its bull shit. MarSol is great and a great price. Why use a private car for 120,000 pesos that actually may take longer sometimes.

Here's the numbers for the MarSol office in Barranquilla: 368-3272, 369-4228, 300 808-3147, 313 545-0004, 373-6425, 357-4265 their address is calle 93 # 47-13 their right up from the McDonald's.

Here's the numbers for the MarSol office in Cartagena: 656-4192 ,300 805-6659. Their office address in Cartagena is Crespo cll. 70 no. 6a/120. When you walk out of the airport in Cartagena there is a main street in Crespo, I don't know its name but you just walk one block to the right and their office is on the sea side of the street,. Once again walk directly out the airport to the main Crespo road and turn right walk one block and you'll see the MarSol office on the right hand side.