Well, we just got home from my first trip to Cozumel, and I have to say it was great fun finding out what all the fuss was about 
When I began putting the trip together, I got some advice from TheRedHead about where to stay and with whom to dive, and I have to thank her publicly; she did not steer us wrong.
We stayed at the Villa Aldora, and worked a good arrangement -- My husband and I (and it was originally to have been with another couple, who cancelled at the last minute due to illness) got the North Suite, which is a two bedroom apartment with a large living room and full kitchen. Bob and Cheng had one of the courtyard rooms, which are simple motel-type rooms, and Kevin had the other. We used the ground floor of the suite as a gathering place for meals, cocktails and socializing, and it worked very well. The cost, with the suite split, was not at all unreasonable. The managers, Kay and Greg, are very pleasant and quite determined that things will run smoothly and that their guests will be happy.
Staying at the Villa means getting picked up by the boat at their dock, which is rather nice. We were also able to do some "shore" diving off the dock, and there was a surprising amount of life on the seawall along the buildings. It was surgy but quite manageable. It was also VERY shallow, which kind of ruined my plans to get in the water and practice bag shoots every afternoon
There is a salt water pool at the Villa (used mostly, I think, for classes). There is an outdoor cold water shower for rinsing yourself and gear, and there is a glass-block enclosed area with nice PVC racks for hanging wetsuits, booties etc., although I'll admit we tended to festoon our balconies with them instead. (Things did seem to dry better in the drying area, although I don't understand it, because there wasn't much airflow there. That's why we hung our stuff on the balconies, but it seemed to dry slower there. Go figure.)
Because we were a group of five, we had a boat to ourselves almost every day, which was quite nice. The boats were clean and appeared well-maintained, and we had no issues with boat function during the trip. Entry was by back roll off all the boats but one, and was done as a choreographed exercise to get everybody in the water at once. It went smoothly except once, when the boat drifted over us and I got my head bonked hard as I floated to the surface after the entry. Peter got his foot in the prop, which was even scarier, but nobody was really hurt. A reminder of the dangers inherent in being close to anything as massive as even a small boat!
We all dove Nitrox, and there was an analyzer on the boat every day, and the mixes ran from the high 31s to about 33.7. We each had the opportunity to analyze and confirm our own mix. There was an extra charge for Nitrox, which we knew in advance.
One of the nicest things about the Aldora boats was the jackets! These were a lovely surprise -- They are 3/4 length windbreakers lined with Polarfleece. Wrapping up in one of these for the boat ride between dives or back to the dock was just heavenly. I have taken to having a windbreaker on the boat for tropical dive trips, but my Gortex jacket isn't as long or as warm as these were. I'd dive with Aldora again just for the coats.
The diving was typical, as I understand it, for Cozumel: A deeper dive on the vertical reef structure for the first dive, and a drift over the shallow reefs for the second. Dive time was determined by gas consumption, and all of our dives were an hour or more, with a couple in the 70 - 75 minute range. Basically, we went up when we got bored or cold, because I don't think anybody ever saw less than about 800 psi in a tank. Aldora provides steel 120s for the men, and 100s for the women, and that makes for nice long dives.
One comment about something I found curious: The steels tanks had boots, and there was pretty impressive corrosion of the exterior of the tanks where the tops of the boots sat. (I'm never going to let ANYBODY tell me boots don't promote corrosion!) By the standards I was taught in my PSI tank inspection course, these tanks would not pass PSI inspection for continued use. I don't know if there is any required inspection for steel tanks in Mexico, but it surprised me that nobody seemed concerned about the safety of using tanks with such deep corrosion in their walls. Not slamming Aldora, because I saw other tanks with similar corrosion on the docks.
We had the same guide for most of our dives, a wonderful man named Mateo. He struck the perfect balance between allowing us to do our own dives, and helping to point out critters we might otherwise have missed (like toadfish!)
Surface interval was spent at a beach club, which was not the high point of the trip. This place apparently serves the cruise ship population. It was noisy, and sometimes quite crowded, and on one day, we were unable to get any service at our table at all to get anything to eat or drink. It was hard for me to believe that people pay $40 to $65 to get in there!
We did two night dives, which were WONDERFUL and which I would highly recommend to anybody going to Cozumel. The octopuses there are stunning with their colors, and the lobsters come out and stroll across the sand. Mateo knew where to find sleeping turtles, and we all found the huge crabs that we never saw a hint of in the daytime.
The last day, we did a trip to the cenotes with Mateo. Everything was organized by Aldora -- We met at the ferry, where Mateo bought the tickets, and were picked up by a prearranged van on the Playa del Carmen side. Mateo had water and fruit and really tasty barcued chicken sandwiches for us for the trip. The cenote diving I have written up elsewhere -- It really defies adequate description, and I think is an absolute must for anybody diving in the area. Mateo was a good and careful guide, even by my rather strict standards, and I think anybody doing tours with him would have a good experience and be safe.
This, as I said, was our first trip to Cozumel, and we don't have any other dive ops or lodgings to compare, but I'd have to say I think we were very satisfied with the way the housing and the diving dovetailed neatly by working with this particular operation.
We don't have our pictures from the trip (LOTS of them!) processed yet, but Bob's got some of his up in a slideshow.
Overall, I enjoyed the trip thoroughly, but I'd have to say I doubt I'll ever do another week on Cozumel. If I'm going to head down that way, I'm going to be on the other side of the channel, headed underground
When I began putting the trip together, I got some advice from TheRedHead about where to stay and with whom to dive, and I have to thank her publicly; she did not steer us wrong.
We stayed at the Villa Aldora, and worked a good arrangement -- My husband and I (and it was originally to have been with another couple, who cancelled at the last minute due to illness) got the North Suite, which is a two bedroom apartment with a large living room and full kitchen. Bob and Cheng had one of the courtyard rooms, which are simple motel-type rooms, and Kevin had the other. We used the ground floor of the suite as a gathering place for meals, cocktails and socializing, and it worked very well. The cost, with the suite split, was not at all unreasonable. The managers, Kay and Greg, are very pleasant and quite determined that things will run smoothly and that their guests will be happy.
Staying at the Villa means getting picked up by the boat at their dock, which is rather nice. We were also able to do some "shore" diving off the dock, and there was a surprising amount of life on the seawall along the buildings. It was surgy but quite manageable. It was also VERY shallow, which kind of ruined my plans to get in the water and practice bag shoots every afternoon
There is a salt water pool at the Villa (used mostly, I think, for classes). There is an outdoor cold water shower for rinsing yourself and gear, and there is a glass-block enclosed area with nice PVC racks for hanging wetsuits, booties etc., although I'll admit we tended to festoon our balconies with them instead. (Things did seem to dry better in the drying area, although I don't understand it, because there wasn't much airflow there. That's why we hung our stuff on the balconies, but it seemed to dry slower there. Go figure.)
Because we were a group of five, we had a boat to ourselves almost every day, which was quite nice. The boats were clean and appeared well-maintained, and we had no issues with boat function during the trip. Entry was by back roll off all the boats but one, and was done as a choreographed exercise to get everybody in the water at once. It went smoothly except once, when the boat drifted over us and I got my head bonked hard as I floated to the surface after the entry. Peter got his foot in the prop, which was even scarier, but nobody was really hurt. A reminder of the dangers inherent in being close to anything as massive as even a small boat!
We all dove Nitrox, and there was an analyzer on the boat every day, and the mixes ran from the high 31s to about 33.7. We each had the opportunity to analyze and confirm our own mix. There was an extra charge for Nitrox, which we knew in advance.
One of the nicest things about the Aldora boats was the jackets! These were a lovely surprise -- They are 3/4 length windbreakers lined with Polarfleece. Wrapping up in one of these for the boat ride between dives or back to the dock was just heavenly. I have taken to having a windbreaker on the boat for tropical dive trips, but my Gortex jacket isn't as long or as warm as these were. I'd dive with Aldora again just for the coats.
The diving was typical, as I understand it, for Cozumel: A deeper dive on the vertical reef structure for the first dive, and a drift over the shallow reefs for the second. Dive time was determined by gas consumption, and all of our dives were an hour or more, with a couple in the 70 - 75 minute range. Basically, we went up when we got bored or cold, because I don't think anybody ever saw less than about 800 psi in a tank. Aldora provides steel 120s for the men, and 100s for the women, and that makes for nice long dives.
One comment about something I found curious: The steels tanks had boots, and there was pretty impressive corrosion of the exterior of the tanks where the tops of the boots sat. (I'm never going to let ANYBODY tell me boots don't promote corrosion!) By the standards I was taught in my PSI tank inspection course, these tanks would not pass PSI inspection for continued use. I don't know if there is any required inspection for steel tanks in Mexico, but it surprised me that nobody seemed concerned about the safety of using tanks with such deep corrosion in their walls. Not slamming Aldora, because I saw other tanks with similar corrosion on the docks.
We had the same guide for most of our dives, a wonderful man named Mateo. He struck the perfect balance between allowing us to do our own dives, and helping to point out critters we might otherwise have missed (like toadfish!)
Surface interval was spent at a beach club, which was not the high point of the trip. This place apparently serves the cruise ship population. It was noisy, and sometimes quite crowded, and on one day, we were unable to get any service at our table at all to get anything to eat or drink. It was hard for me to believe that people pay $40 to $65 to get in there!
We did two night dives, which were WONDERFUL and which I would highly recommend to anybody going to Cozumel. The octopuses there are stunning with their colors, and the lobsters come out and stroll across the sand. Mateo knew where to find sleeping turtles, and we all found the huge crabs that we never saw a hint of in the daytime.
The last day, we did a trip to the cenotes with Mateo. Everything was organized by Aldora -- We met at the ferry, where Mateo bought the tickets, and were picked up by a prearranged van on the Playa del Carmen side. Mateo had water and fruit and really tasty barcued chicken sandwiches for us for the trip. The cenote diving I have written up elsewhere -- It really defies adequate description, and I think is an absolute must for anybody diving in the area. Mateo was a good and careful guide, even by my rather strict standards, and I think anybody doing tours with him would have a good experience and be safe.
This, as I said, was our first trip to Cozumel, and we don't have any other dive ops or lodgings to compare, but I'd have to say I think we were very satisfied with the way the housing and the diving dovetailed neatly by working with this particular operation.
We don't have our pictures from the trip (LOTS of them!) processed yet, but Bob's got some of his up in a slideshow.
Overall, I enjoyed the trip thoroughly, but I'd have to say I doubt I'll ever do another week on Cozumel. If I'm going to head down that way, I'm going to be on the other side of the channel, headed underground
