The El Dorado Reserve is one of Colombia’s top birding destinations and once you get there, you are sure to see some amazing birds! Getting there can be quite the challenge though, especially if you are on a budget. The easy way is to book a transfer on the El Dorado Reserve website when you book your accommodation. You can have them pick you up at your arrival airport – Baranquilla, Cartegena or Santa Marta but this won’t be cheap. Rates from Santa Marta start at $140 one way but that does include up to 5 people so may be cost effective if you are in a small group.
The rock-bottom cheapest way to get there is to take a collectivo (shared taxi) from Santa Marta to Minca for 7000 COP (Around $2.50 USD), then hire a motorcycle taxi to take you to the reserve. You don’t need to book these in advance, the round trip costs for 2 people are around 160,000 COP ($55 USD-ish). But the road is long and in very bad condition so your spine and posterior may be the worse for wear!
We went middle-of-the road. We got a taxi in Santa Marta for around 30,000 COP ($10.00 USD so only $5 more than the collectivo for a couple. This went very smoothly and the road is excellent up to Minca.
Gotta love a supermarket with a parrot as a logo!
The only annoying thing was getting stuck behind trucks but the taxi passed them as quickly as he could do so safely. 
Welcome to Minca! Here’s a few pics as we passed through. 
I decided that there was no way my dodgy back was going to withstand the road to El Dorado on a motorbike so I booked the one-way transfer from Minca to El Dorado to leave at 9am for $80 USD since I wanted to get there as early as possible to see more birds. I held off on the return transfer hoping to meet other people there to share the cost. (didn’t happen, we paid by ourselves)
The driver was ready and waiting as we arrived. We stopped at a small shop to get some snacks & drinks, use the conveniences and we were off and running! 
The road started out not so bad…………………………….
…………….but gradually got worse (albeit very scenic)…………………………
…………………….and worse (getting stuck behind trucks)…………………………
……………until we finally saw the sign for the lodge! Arrived at last! 
So for this part of the trip we paid $160 USD round trip vs the $55 for motorcycle taxis but it was worth it to save our backs and derrieres!