Instant Reader Report
on Aldora Divers / [N/A] in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan / [N/A] on
2003/06
by
Roger Zander , Mi, usa
Report Number 030920135129196

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 Belize, Xcalak, Bonaire, Roatan 

Dive Conditions

DM depth limits, 500 psi on boat but, usualy still had 1000 psi due to DM
ending dive, buddy system  

[None]  

Overall Rating

After multiple trips to Cozumel, we decided to try Aldora Divers.  They are
better than most dive operators on Cozumel but, it depends on what you is
important to your diving preferences.  Here's my opinion of our 6 days
with Aldora.  Their equipment and boats were in good repair, they picked
us up in San Miguel at their pier and the Divemaster Jorge was very good
with supervising newer divers.  The owner Dave, happened to be in town, a
great guy but, he's not out on the boats.  The dive shop would rinse BCDs
only, not wetsuits - that's a nuisance.  I asked for a freshwater camera
rinse bucket 3 days in a row without success.  There was only warm water
on boat to drink, no juice, soda or ice.  One day, we "ran out of
reef" twice due to missing the start of the reef.  We arrived at a
night dive site with 2 non-working lights and no spare batteries. 
Fortunately, divers had pocket lights to substitute.  A typical profile
was 30 minutes on a reef or wall followed by 40 minutes on a sandy bottom.
 The rule was to return to the boat with 500 psi, our group usually had
1000 psi remaining due to DM ending the dive and we got bored looking at
sand.  We were using the larger capacity tanks with DIN connectors yet, we
never really benefitted with higher quality bottom time.  Aldora has a
standard 2 hour surface interval which is too long for my liking,
especially since we had relatively normal nitrogen loading profiles.  The
7:30 am departure got us to the dive sites first but, the sites were also
darker and in shadows that early in the day.  For the reminder of our
trip, we chartered a local DM, captain and boat with tanks for 5 days. 
Using the standard Aluminum 80s, we repeated some of the Aldora trip dive
sites.  We had equal dive profiles and returned to the boat with over 300
to 500 psi.  The DM and captain went to our choice of sites, always
putting us on the reef at the beginning.  The conclusion we came up with
is "why pay more?"   The highest price does not equal highest
quality.  Our charter worked out to $50 for 2 tanks per day and only 5
divers on the boat.  Aldora is nearly double that price with 7 divers on
the boat. 

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