Portofino, Cozumel, Roatan, Indonesia

Indonesia has endless resorts with good, often great diving, and we frequently report on unadvertised resorts that deserve your consideration. Long-time Undercurrent correspondent Hugh Aaron (Tallahassee, FL) has made 1000 dives, and this May he traveled to Coral Eye Boutique Resort and Marine Outpost on Bangka Island, after determining it was a good base for diving North Sulawesi's Bangka Island, Bunaken Marine Park, and Lembeh Strait. You reach the resort by flying to Manado. He reports.

"Coral Eye is in a beautiful setting between jungle and beach, accessible only by boat or on foot through the jungle. It is one of the most luxurious and best-managed dive resorts I have visited, with classic Indonesian architecture, and the buildings are on or close to a beautiful beach with an extensive house reef . . . It began as an outpost for marine biology research, and while it is now a luxury dive resort, it still retains that original function. Three Italian marine biologists gave evening lectures and went on the dive boats with us to conduct fieldwork. In 2025, Coral Eye completed an open-air restaurant and lounge with an infinity pool and water views. The food was excellent. We stayed in a luxurious garden villa. The dive operation was extremely well run. In addition to sites around Bangka, Coral Eye offers three all-day dive excursions, among the best dive days we had over three weeks of diving in Indonesia. Turtles in Bunaken Marine Park were everywhere. We made an open-ocean crossing north for three dives around remote Biaro Island at Biaro Pinnacle. The current was screaming. Coral Eye has a no-reefhook policy, so divers need to be comfortable managing themselves in strong currents. The reef was spectacularly healthy, with large schools of sizeable fish, something we otherwise did not see much of in North Sulawesi. The reefs were really healthy, with good coral cover and a lot of small fish. Except for larger fish at Biaro, including bumphead parrotfish, there were not a lot of big animals, but numerous seahorses, including pygmy seahorses, and octopuses. I really enjoyed the wall dives with their rich collection of marine life." www.coral-eye.com

Speaking of Italy, a few years back, I made a lot of great hiking in Italy, including a nice hike down to Portofino, where I was taken by the incredible view of the charming village and its magnificent harbor filled with cruising boats of the rich and famous. I wondered what diving might be like, but taken by a fine lunch, I soon forgot about it. Recently, I heard from an Italian subscriber, Tom, from Milano, who dives there with Dimensione Diving in Lavagna. "The area around Portofino, on the picturesque Ligurian coast, is a marine protected area with lots of fish, schools, variety, big groupers, it's all here. Octopus and morays are common, and some nudis. The reef can be quite pretty; bring a light to see the colors. The Portofino peninsula drops vertically into the sea, and you get steep walls; it gets deep fast -- 30-40m [100-130 feet] is the norm; techies go much deeper. There are also wrecks in the area. Water temps get up to77-80°F at the surface in the summer, but below the thermocline, it remains at 62°F. People generally dive in 7mm or drysuits. It's a 20-minute boat ride along a beautiful stretch of coast; if you're lucky, you get dolphins or leaping tuna. The staff is competent and safety-conscious. I'd not go anywhere in the Med for a pure dive trip, but if you're in the area, it's worth your while." And since you're about an hour from the remarkable hillside/waterfront towns of Cinque Terre, you could plan quite the entertaining visit. www.dimensionediving.com

Our reader reports are always factual and interesting, not usually written to be entertaining, so I want to direct you to Theodore C. Recupero's (Kanosh, UT) report on Bananarama on Roatan, especially if you're searching for a Roatan destination. Recupero, who has made 1000 dives, says, "My reviews are honest. Most places are awesome, even if they lack something or something goes wrong. I had someone mix my 'monkey lala' poorly once, and I called it out. A bad tank of air, again, called it out. Those were rare anomalies in places where everything else was excellent. We travel to dive, for fun, for us. We have a shop, we teach, and we get paid to dive with students. We've gotten paid to dive wrecks. They weren't wrecks anymore afterward. So, we know what we're doing down there. Paying to dive means it's our dive. In all the years of dive travel, there has only been one place I would never return to. Now there are two.

I've never been told I couldn't go in before by any DM here in Roatan. Eight trips to Roatan, 120+ dives. All have said, do what you like based on your skill level .... everyone except Sergeant Ben, Scuba Police . . . It's AOW students. Tell them to watch their air. Or did you rent them all computers along with the dive lights they didn't need? They took the refresher couple out with no watches, computers, or anything else . . . night dives? Didn't know I paid to tag along on an AOW class. Ben couldn't figure out why that might be an issue. I get paid to dive with students, not the other way around. We skipped the second AOW dive . . . arranged for fifteen dives, scheduled for 10, stopped at 9. Went online, can't change flight for less than a kidney. Damn, stuck here another night . . . I have stayed at a lot of places where I inquired what they would do if I refused to leave . . . that's not going to be an issue here. Damned shame that the whole place couldn't be half as good as the chicken fingers they serve at the bar." You can read his entire report here.

And just a brief comment about Roatan's Mayan Divers, which was mostly drift diving for Paul Anderson (Fairfax, VT), there in March. "One day, they put us off the point, got rough, and the divemaster didn't carry a flag, got bounced around for 20 minutes until the boat saw us. Not fun. No roll call on all dives with a lot of divers in snorkeling boats. No safety brief." Now, I would say that a divemaster without an SMG on a drift dive ought to have his credentials pulled. But, then again, I wonder if they call him a divemaster to reassure the customers when he is nothing more than a guide. Next time, if you don't notice an SMB on your guide, ask to see it. https://bananarama.com    www.mayanprincess.com/diving-in-roatan

Cozumel has two operators our readers consistently favor: Living Underwater and Aldora Divers. Luis Quieirox (San Jose Dos Campos) dived with Aldora in May and reports. "Returning to Cozumel after more than three decades felt like stepping into a diver's dream. I completed eight dives with Aldora, using their steel tanks pressurized to 4000 psi, which cut my usual ballast in half. With that setup, dives stretched up to 85 minutes -- Aldora's boats carried no more than six divers plus the guide, departing across from the Casa Mexicana hotel and picking up others at Villa Aldora or nearby spots. I stayed at Casa Mexicana, an excellent choice thanks to its central location and comfortable amenities . . . Compared to 1992, marine life seemed less abundant: few black groupers, stingrays, or parrotfish, and no morays. Still, the reefs pulsed with color thanks to countless queen angelfish, snappers, grunts, jacks, barracudas, surgeonfish, butterflyfish, trunkfish, and more, bringing vibrancy to the healthy and colorful coral walls. Cozumel's strong currents and massive coral formations demand constant attention. At times, the guide would get out of sight briefly, and currents could shift suddenly. One frustration with drift diving is passing something interesting but being unable to swim back against the current to linger. Even with reduced visibility (for Cozumel standards) and fewer large fish, Cozumel was nothing short of awesome. www.living-underwater.com www.aldora.com

As for Living Underwater, David Vickery (Hoboken, NJ), who has been there seven times, has always reported it as a top-notch operation. This time he reports a diving "injury" (which we've never heard of), and had to get treatment. "Gripping my SeaCure mouthpiece too tightly may have led to a wobbly molar implant that decided it wouldn't wait for me to see a dentist when I got back. The concierge at the El Presidente arranged an appointment for me at Amerimed and with Dr. Jorge I. Cuauhtli, a dentist, oral surgeon, and implant specialist, who took courses at Harvard. After a five-minute wait, I was escorted into a clean and modern dental suite. X-rays were taken, the doctor drilled open the top of the implant, screwed it down tighter, filled it with composite resin, and 45 minutes later, I was waiting for a cab. All for $65."

Wayne Johnson (Kennesaw, GA) was aboard the Aggressor in the Galapagos in June and perhaps experienced the beginning of what is to be an extremely strong El Niño this year. "While we did encounter schooling hammerheads one day, the warm water due to the super El Niño kept the big critters deep, so we didn't see much besides that. Mola molas and whale sharks will have to stay on my bucket list . . . I've been saying for a couple of trips that the Aggressor fleet has lost what made it special. If ever there's a difference between what's advertised corporately, like coffee service in the morning and having plenty of electrolyte drinks available 24/7, a med station, etc., you are constantly reminded that each boat is a franchise, blah blah blah. Tired of hearing that (this was my 9th trip with them, all in different boats), I want consistency for the amount of money they charge. I also hate a fuel surcharge. That's like telling me to pay more for a meal after I've eaten it because the price of beef was high today. This made me look around at other operators, and there are good ones that don't ever charge a fuel surcharge. Don't fall for the 10 percent of the trip cost for the tip expectation.

Johnson was aboard the Roatan Aggressor a few months before and thought it, too, didn't measure up. "I asked beforehand if there were DIN tanks available and only used an adaptor if there are no DIN valves on the cylinders. I was assured by the person I emailed at the boat contact email address that they were available, so I left my adaptor at home. Nope, no DIN valves in the 80s, so had to use their adaptor. OK. No big deal. Then I set my gear up as asked, and there was no pressure in the tank; one of the DMs said there must be something wrong with my regulator. Turns out the cylinder wasn't filled. So then they fixed that . . . looked like time stopped in the '90s when Aggressor was running strong . . . Every time a guest had a question, they were reminded that this is a franchise, yada yada yada. It made me start to question the quality of Aggressors for the price. There is a need for updated business practices to keep this beloved fleet relevant."

But in June, Norbert Melnick (Fallbrook, CA), who has made 1000 dives, was in Micronesia and says, "The Aggressor Fleet has a great reputation, and this trip lived up to that reputation and more. The staff was extremely professional, from the kitchen staff to the divemasters. The dive briefs were well thought out, thorough, and easy to understand. The boat, including staterooms and all common areas, was well maintained and clean." www.aggressor.com

So, we are reminding you that the Aggressor fleet is a franchise, yada yada yada.

By the way, all the reports are on our website as reader reports and fully accessible.

Until next time, I wish you good diving.

Ben Davison