Trip Report Jan 13 through 21st Aldora Divers and Occidental Grand

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baystr

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
194
Reaction score
5
Location
Salem, OR
# of dives
500 - 999
Just got home from another fantastic trip to Cozumel.

We (my non diving wife and I) stayed at the Occidental Grand this trip, it was our first time at that hotel. We selected it for the amenities; spa for the wife, beach, and proximity to the majority of the dive sites. We enjoyed the food and selection for an All Inclusive, resort was gorgeous and well kept, and we would definitley stay there again. It is too far from town, but we still headed in town almost every night for dinner and to shop around the square.

Now for the important stuff...........I dove with Aldora Divers for the first time. Their service and staff are first class. When we arrived in Coz, had my taxi driver swing by aldora's shop and dropped off all of my gear. Every day, they picked me up at my hotel pier right on time. My gear was assembled, disassembled and fresh rinsed everyday, truly a valet service. I enjoyed diving 4 lbs and steel 120's every day, with all of our dives well over an hour. Surface intervals were 1.5 hours, but was necessary to prolong our second dives. I was able to select every dive site every day, with an agreement from the other divers on the boat (max of 5). One day I asked to do Marracaibo for the first dive and Barracuda on the 2nd, and they obliged me without hesitation. They are a bit pricey, but the extended bottom times and gear valet service makes it hard complain. I will dive with Aldora on my next trip!

It was my first oppurtunity to dive Marracaibo, and I think it maybe the most beautiful dive in Cozumel, the Arch is gigantic, and reef seems "untouched". However, it is obvious the lack of diving there, I counted 41 lionfish on that dive! It seems that the eradication on the main reef/dive sites is effective, but it is scary how many lionfish there are. There seems to be less lionfish in more commonly dived areas than I saw in November and December!

It was also my first time at Barracuda, currents were pretty crazy, pulling you completely away from the wall, and we had one pretty bad downwelling that got our attention, and a bit scary on Nitrox, but we hopped over the wall for the rest of the dive. The coral is dead all over barracuda, but there were so many fish it was amazing!

I was hoping to test the Aldora dive guarantee during port closure, and dive the "wild side" but port was never closed on my diving days.

On our second to last day, I was not going to dive, but changed my mind in the morning(with a blessing from my wife) and it was too late to catch the Aldora boat, so I jumped on the hotel dive op, Dive Palancar Boat, for a final day of diving. I had never dove with them, and wasnt in the mood to be plagued by resort divers, so I tested the DM, and asked him to let me solo, and he obliged, much to my disbelief! I plunged by myself about 1 or 2 minutes ahead of the group with my camera, dropped straight down, and didnt see the group again until the safety stop, it was perfect, and I got my best pictures of the week. I appreciated the freedom

I just cant wait to get back....................
 
Yeah, I agree. The Marine Park needs to get on some of those deeper sites and exercise extreme prejudice with lionfish eradication! Those sites are not dived as frequently and due to the depth, dive ops just can't take the time to remove them with nets. And there are getting to be some pretty big buggers there. Same in the north. Didn't you see a lot of them at Barracuda?

Kind of surprised the on-site op let you get in the water and go solo w/o having dived with you first. For all he knew, you could have been an ijut :D
 
not quite as many at barracuda, but still way more than the major sites........erradications is working. We just need to keep at it!
 

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