Dive Review of Aldora Divers/Hotel Cozumel & Resort in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan/Cozumel

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Aldora Divers/Hotel Cozumel & Resort: "COZUMEL MUCH SAFER THAN THE USA", Mar, 2021, by Bradley William Bowen, UT, US ( Sr. Reviewer 7 reports with 9 Helpful votes). Report 11513 has 5 Helpful votes.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Cozumel is FAR safer than the USA! All bags were sprayed with disinfectant at the airport before they could be loaded for transport to our hotel. The hotel would not let us handle our own baggage until they had sprayed them with disinfectant a second time. The hotel took our temperature and required us to use hand sanitizer before we could enter the hotel. Almost every business establishment required a temperature check and use of hand sanitizer before entering, including all restaurants, grocery stores, and souvenir shops. Masks are widely used throughout the island. We wore N95 masks when in taxi's, and the taxi drivers often had the windows down. COVID tests to return to the USA were offered by the International Hospital in almost all hotels. We signed up for ours in the hotel lobby and had the test on Friday afternoon between the morning dives and our night dive. Cost was $32 per person. Negative test results were emailed a few hours later. We forwarded the emails to the hotel reception desk where the results were printed. We checked into American Airlines online for our return flights, but could not print boarding passes until arrival at the airport. First thing you do is present proof of your negative COVID test and sign a one-page declaration that you do not have any COVID symptoms. Then you print luggage tags and boarding passes as in the past. Daytime temperatures were very pleasant, and the balmy breeze felt great. We highly recommend eating at Rolandi's, Le Chef, La Mission, and Guido's. Food was fabulous at all four restaurants, and La Mission provided free guacamole and a complimentary bowl of soup for the one member in our group who didn't order soup. We stayed at Hotel Cozumel & Resort, which was purchased by Wyndham in December, 2020. On prior visits I could only get wifi in the lobby, but my phone stayed connected to hotel wifi a block from the hotel as we were walking into town. Our room was sealed with a blue sticker attesting that it had been cleaned, sanitized, and disinfected - and we saw three maids cleaning and disinfecting rooms vacated by prior guests. It took them a lot of time to do the job. For the past 20 years we have only dove in Cozumel with Living Underwater, but Jeremy was already booked so we dove with Aldora. We made 3 dives per day on steel 120 tanks for an hour and a half each dive, 32% EAN. We had four experienced divers and one new diver. We had great diving with Aldora Divers. Juan Vega was our divemaster and he was very skilled at finding things I still hadn't seen after 728 dives - a starfish that shot green flashes of light at night when your hand passed over it, which he found using a red light; two true nudibranchs at night that Juan had never seen in Cozumel, only in his home country of Colombia; octopus; eels; mating lobsters, etc. LOTS of spotted Eagle Rays, and we watched one digging in the sand for conch that had buried themselves. LOTS of yellow stingrays feeding with other fish species, only a few Southern Stingray, but we had spotted Eagle Rays and turtles on almost every dive, and in the mornings found a number of sleeping nurse sharks hiding under corals. Found a HUGE Loggerhead sleeping on our first night dive, and kept our distance so as not to wake it. The turtle had to be well over a hundred years old. Lots of Splendid Toadfish, and we got good at spotting them on our own. Same with painted Elesia - got good at finding them on our own. Had Barracuda on many dives, and saw one Wahoo cruise past. Juan was skilled at making a noise with his hands to call in a Caribbean reef shark at Punta Sur, which we saw for around 20 to 30 seconds on both visits to the Cathedral. We did lots of tunnels, caves, and swim throughs. Pristine coral and gorgonians in many locations at 50 to 70 feet, despite two category 3 hurricanes within three weeks of each other in November/December 2020. Saw some small schools of horse-eye Jacks, which have been missing the past 10 years and appeared to be making a bit of a recovery. Coral and reef fish at shallower depths were the same as on other trips made within the past 10 years. Water temp ranged between 77 and 84. After the first two days I wore a fleece hood with my fleece lined dive skin. Those wearing 3 mil did not complain about the cold until we got out of the ocean. Large, warm jackets were quickly offered for protection from the wind. We had light breezes to moderate wind and partly sunny skies most of the time. It rained on our day of arrival and the night before we departed.
Websites	Aldora Divers
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Fiji, Australia, Maldives, Indonesia, Cozumel, Mexico Cenotes, Playa del Carmen, Galapagos, Hawaii, California, Florida, Socorro Islands, Palau, Turks & Caicos, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Philippines, etc.
Closest Airport	Cozumel	Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	77-84°F / 25-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	1
Water Visibility	100-300 Ft/ 30-91 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Stay with the group and advise when air hit 1,000 psi. Stay out of deco.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	There is not a rinse tank for underwater photographers. We asked in advance and they had a bucket of fresh water for small cameras.

Report currently has 5 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Greg Bruce in WA, US at Mar 19, 2021 09:34 EST

Nice report. Thanks for taking the time to share. I was in Cozumel over this past Christmas and had a similar experience. Headed back for another 9 days the first of April. Thanks again.

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Dive Review of Aldora Divers/Hotel Cozumel & Resort in Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan/Cozumel

Aldora Divers/Hotel Cozumel & Resort: "COZUMEL MUCH SAFER THAN THE USA", Mar, 2021,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Aldora Divers/Hotel Cozumel & Resort in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan/Cozumel