Dive Review of Aldora Divers in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

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Aldora Divers, Jun, 2003, by Roger Zander, Mi, usa . Report 739.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	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.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Belize, Xcalak, Bonaire, Roatan
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	noCurrents
Water Temp	80-83°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-150 Ft/ 15-46 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	DM depth limits, 500 psi on boat but, usualy still had 1000 psi due to DM ending dive, buddy system
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	1 or 2
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
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Aldora Divers in Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

Aldora Divers, Jun, 2003,

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
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan