DIMI Scuba Tours

Diana Aguilar de Leon owns and runs the centre, and has been in the diving business for 35 years. She holds SSI Instructor Certifier, PADI IDC Staff Instructor and TDI-SDI Instructor ratings, volunteers with the Cozumel Marine Park, and trains staff at other local operators on how to run diving well. The centre itself carries SSI Instructor Training Center status, the rating a facility needs to certify diving professionals.

Where it departs from its neighbours is the training catalogue. Beyond the certification ladder from Scuba Diver up to Master Diver, it runs seven ecology specialties: sharks, coral identification, sea turtles, manta and ray, marine mammals, marine ecology and fish identification. Few shops of this size carry that many, and the catalogue lines up with the stated aim of building a network of divers who protect the reefs they visit.

The diving itself is standard Cozumel in the best sense. Morning boats run two or three tanks with the deep dive first, an afternoon single tank can be added for a third dive without a full day aboard, and twilight and night dives go out on request. Cenote day trips to the mainland, a seasonal whale shark tour, snorkelling and private charters fill out a schedule broader than the shop's size suggests.

Trips get organised rather than sold. Reviewers describe the centre handling logistics well beyond the dive boat, in one case arranging a group's hotel and the shape of their week. Crew set up and break down equipment, and nitrox is available as an add-on.

Course delivery draws praise, most of it about Open Water certification, where divers mention quick responses before they arrived and a smooth run from paperwork to certificate. Guides get credit for finding animals: one account lists turtles, sharks, spotted eagle rays, nudibranchs and jacks from a single trip. Some divers have come back more than once. In the wider diving community the centre comes up as a recommendation for people who want a relaxed operation and small boat loads.