Dive Review of Aldora Divers in
Mexico (Western)/Cozumel

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Aldora Divers: "'Adventure Dives' Worth the Trip to Cozumel", Nov, 2018, by Michael Wood, WA, US ( Sr. Contributor 21 reports with 14 Helpful votes). Report 10606 has 2 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I’ve dove Cozumel for 20 years because of its consistently good drift dives, it's cheap & easy to get to, its giant coral formations, swim-throughs, mini-walls, east-side diving during “Norte’s” (only dive shop offering), and the “Adventure Dive” way to the north in the blue only offered regularly by Aldora Divers. First, the normal south end Cozumel stuff: The dive boat picks you up at Villa Aldora at 7:30am, or most piers along the way south (heard Iberostar won’t let you board off their pier; have to wade out to the boat). Takes 45 minutes to get to dive sites. I won’t go in to detail, but my favorite sites are: Columbia Deep (many fun swim-throughs), Palancar Caves, San Francisco and Tormentos. They are all drift dives, of course. One big reason to dive with Aldora, besides their quality dive masters (there is always turnover in Cozumel, but co-owner/dive shop manager Memo seems to manage it well) but their “Adventure Dive” is another big reason. It’s 45 minutes north of Villa Aldora and reached only by GPS. Discovered by local fisherman “Mommia” who goes on every dive, it is an advanced, 3-tank dive for strong kickers who are good on air. The first dive, I followed Mommia straight down to 111 ft. in about 1 minute on top of a ridge and waited for the others. I use long, Cressi free-diving fins so I was able to keep up with him. Then Mommia led us to a ledge/cave where there was a sleeping Caribbean Reef Shark, seemingly in a catatonic state. Mommia shined a light in his direction so I was able to get good video of this cool phenomenon. The rest of the dive was along the reef at about 85 feet with loads of lobsters (in-season) & lion fish, successfully speared and de-spined by Mommia, two other divers and our DM Steve. This site produced some barracuda and sting rays here and there. It’s short due to avoiding deco time—40 minutes including 5 minute safety stop. The second dive was very rich in many schools of barracuda, giant southern sting rays, a couple of Caribbean reef sharks tooling by, and 2 squadrons of Eagle Rays who circle around for a few minutes. Of course there were standard reef fish everywhere, as this is a little dove site. Our surface interval consisted of lobster & lionfish ceviche, guacamole and chips all prepared by the crew and was astoundingly delicious. We also waded inland through a shallow salt slough to 800 year old Mayan temple ruins. The third “Adventure Dive” was El Gato’s Reef, named after our captain, who discovered this one up north as well. This was a current-less dive of 50-60 feet, with corals and shelves, where I saw Tophats, Flamingo Tongues, parrotfish, Queen Angels, Grey Angels, French Angels, a giant parrotfish and other usual coral reef fishes. But the highlight was, during the last 15 minutes of the dive, 6 dolphins visited us and cavorted around us out of curiosity for a minute. Everyone was excited and jazzed about that, of course, since this is a rare occurrence—only the second time I’ve seen dolphins at depth in 20 years of diving Cozumel (other time was on the east side, during a Norte). Staying at Villa Aldora is convenient and relatively economical. However, the only rooms with full kitchens are the 2 big two-bedroom suites, two one-room suites with 2 beds, and one room with one bed. The other 4 small rooms only have a microwave. The smaller/medium sized rooms are fairly priced, but the big Aldora and North Suites are over-priced for 4 people, compared to nearby VRBO/AirBNB properties from which you can walk to the Villa Aldora. We ate breakfast/lunch in the room, and out for dinner at night. Favorite places: La Cocay, Kondesa, La Perlita, Guidos, Sorrisi. Aldora Divers is a consistently good operation, but you do pay a little more: $115 for 2 tank dives, but they are 80-90 minutes so worth it. You don't get back to the Villa Aldora until 1:30-2:00pm, so usually no afternoon dive possible. Can arrange for night dives.
Websites	Aldora Divers
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Caribbean, Indonesia, Maldives, PNG, GBR, Philippines, Hawai'i
Closest Airport	Cozumel	Getting There	Easy-peasy, but often more expensive vs. Cancun. But hassle of bus/ferry from Cancun adds 2-3 hours; Maya Air Cancun-Cozumel is an option, but they tend to ding you over $100 for scuba bag of 30-50 lbs.
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy, rainy, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, surge, currents, no currents
Water Temp	82-83°F / 28-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-75 Ft/ 15-23 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Deep, long dives so you must monitor deco status; steel 120 cf nitrox tanks produce 80-90 min. dives
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	Schools	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
UW Photo Comments	No rinse tanks on boats for big camera rigs. Bucket for GoPros. No camera room at Villa Aldora. They handle cameras well.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Aldora Divers in Mexico (Western)/Cozumel

Aldora Divers: "'Adventure Dives' Worth the Trip to Cozumel", Nov, 2018,

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):

Dive Review of Aldora Divers in
Mexico (Western)/Cozumel