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

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Aldora Divers/Villa Aldora, Apr, 2013, by Thomas Anklam, CA, US ( Reviewer 4 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 6967 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This was my first time diving Cozumel. After reading the reviews in Undercurrent, I chose to dive with Aldora Divers and to stay at the Villa. Very high marks to both. The Villa is very nice, immaculately clean and well run. Brent and Debbie, the onsite managers, couldn't have been more accommodating and did everything possible to make my stay enjoyable and relaxing. Aldora Divers uses 120ft3 steel tanks, so, if you use your air conservatively, you can get incredible bottom times. We did a relatively shallow drift using 36% nitrox and my dive buddy and I logged 90 minutes. The drift diving was terrific. Excellent visibility, strong currents and lots to see. You definitely want a good dive operation, because, with the combination of long bottom times and strong currents, you drift a long way. The Aldora divemasters and boat drivers were up to the task and there were never any issues with the pickup. My only issue with the diving is that one of the divemasters is a bit of a cowboy. We dove Punta Sur, a truly spectacular site. But during the pre-dive, he never mentioned that much of the dive would be below 100' and that it would likely be a decompression dive. So as we progressed through the various tunnels, we were all staring at our flashing dive computers wondering what was going on. Fortunately, our group was very experienced, so no issues. Great dive, but the drama was entirely unnecessary. Just to emphasize, this was only one individual, the rest of the Aldora team was excellent. I would dive with Aldora again, without hesitation.
Websites	Aldora Divers
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Fiji, Socorro Islands, Bonaire, Thailand, Monterey
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	78-80°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	100-150 Ft/ 30-46 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
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	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

Subscriber's Comments

By Craig A Wood in PA, US at May 06, 2013 18:50 EST

Hi Thomas, What computers were you using? I've dived with Aldora on similar profiles with my Cochran or Oceanic and not ever entered deco. Of course, these are relatively liberal decompression algorithms. Others on the dives, especially those diving Suunto computers easily went into deco. Even they did not end up with much of a deco obligation after the multilevel profile to end the dive. Best, Craig

By report author: Thomas Anklam in CA, US at May 06, 2013 22:40 EST

Craig, I was using a Suunto, and you're correct, it was only a 3 or 4 minute obligation. My critical comment wasn't that it was a deco dive, but that the divemaster didn't brief this in the predive. This left me to wonder whether we were on the correct profile, was the divemaster lost, etc. Tom

By Craig A Wood in PA, US at May 07, 2013 19:18 EST

Gas management is your responsility. You could easily communicate this with your divemaster. Your divemaster may have assumed that most would be under no deco limits depending on his or her deco algorithmm. On the one dive trip where my wife dived a Suunto rental, it controlled our dive on all occasions.

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

Aldora Divers/Villa Aldora, Apr, 2013,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

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