Honduras 7: Discovery Scuba Dive

Utila runs some of the cheapest PADI certifications on the planet, so it felt criminal not to get Xander and Axel underwater at least once. Kelsey and Enzo went a different route for the day and took a boat through the mangroves to Neptune’s Beach instead, which in hindsight might have been the smarter call.

The dive humbled both boys in different ways. Xander’s stomach staged a full revolt, so he sat the second dive out, done for the day. Axel spent his whole descent fighting his own sinuses, and learning proper equalization the entire way down, and somehow willed himself through it anyway. Watching a fourteen-year-old and a twelve-year-old get physically outmaneuvered by their own inner ears was oddly satisfying as a parent; humility’s a good look on them. We climbed back in the boat afterward and threw up the requisite smile for the camera like champions instead of two kids who’d just been handed their first real reminder that the ocean doesn’t care how tough you are.

Kelsey and Enzo, meanwhile, apparently found the actual paradise version of the day. Neptune’s is one of those places that feels made up, a signpost stabbed into the sand pointing toward Tokyo and Bangkok and Happiness like the island’s decided it’s the center of the world and everywhere else is a rumor. Enzo turned a dock rope swing into a personal throne for a while, and we all met back up for fried chicken at a place with a hand-lettered HAPPY sign over the bar, which is either a coincidence or exactly the kind of on-the-nose ending this island wanted to give us.

#unpavedparenting