Dive Review of Aldora Divers/El Cid in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan/Cozumel

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Aldora Divers/El Cid: "After 15+ years They're Still Fantastic", Aug, 2023, by Ray Hammond, MA, US ( 2 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 12529.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Our accommodations at El Cid La Ceiba, as in the past, were a very good value for the price. Staff were warm and helpful; rooms were clean and well maintained; service was prompt, and the amenities were good. It doesn't match the camaraderie of Aldora Villa but we've been very happy staying there over the past 5 years. Aldora is my yardstick for dive operators, both onshore and liveaboard. Only a few have come close. Boats with 6 divers max, well-matched in experience levels. Steel 100s or 120s with nitrox (32% on the first dive and 36% on the second dive) that gave me (2) 120-minute dives on my first day. No dive in my entire 2 weeks was less than 80 minutes. Because the water is so warm I don't need a wetsuit or skin (most people do) and because of the steel tanks I can dive without weights. The divemasters are excellent (kudos to Liang, Rick, and Mario) with great skill at finding big creatures--reef sharks, including babies, nurse sharks, turtles of all kinds, eels, eagle rays, toadfish, stone fish, octopi, crabs, lobsters, etc. They are also quite expert at finding a host of small critters. On one dive we spent 90 minutes finding all kinds of shrimp, juvenile fish, nudibranchs, worms, sea horses, etc. in an area of coral that was about 50 yards in length and breadth. The one thing missing on this trip were large fish--groupers, etc. My suspicion is that they were caught and consumed during the pandemic when tourism tanked and people were desperate for food. I know of few, if any, dive shops that offer the breadth of diving opportunities--drift diving, wall diving, blackwater diving (which my daughter and I did for the first time and we loved it), northern reef diving, far south (Islote) diving, far north adventure diving, wreck diving, etc. Quite often, we are the only boat or one of few in the area. You can hunt for lionfish, do photography to your heart's content and, because divers are matched by abilities and interests, you rarely, if ever, come away disappointed. I'm always amazed by the ability of the divemasters to rearrange/combine familiar dive sites to give you a new experience of a place you thought you knew. I could go on and on, but I think you get the gist of my feelings (and I think my two daughters and my grandchild will concur) about diving with Aldora. It's not always perfect, but I have yet to see it done better.
Websites	Aldora Divers El Cid
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Cozumel, Hawaii, Belize, Grand Cayman, Galapagos, Turks & Caicos, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Boston
Closest Airport	Cozumel	Getting There	Excellent direct flights from Houston (United), Dallas (American), Mexico City (Aeromexico) and soon Atlanta (Delta)
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, currents
Water Temp	80-84°F / 27-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Staying with group on drift dives
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	There's a fresh water bucket for cameras

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Dive Review of Aldora Divers/El Cid in Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan/Cozumel

Aldora Divers/El Cid: "After 15+ years They're Still Fantastic", Aug, 2023,

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/El Cid in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan/Cozumel