You hear the phrase “when pigs fly” as a way to convey the impossible. But what about “when pigs swim”? Well, that is possible!
Although known for its exotic underwater life, like tropical fish, dolphins, sting rays, sharks and seas turtles, in the Caribbean you can swim with one of the most unexpected animals. Pigs.
It is not every day that you get to swim with pigs on a beautiful, Caribbean beach, but in the Bahamas it is a unique adventure. Usually associated with a farm, a pig in the water seems almost as out of place as a fish out of water.
How Did the Pigs Get to The Bahamas?
That is a great question! Even today, people are not sure how the pigs got there. Although it is speculated that the pigs may have ended up on the island after a shipwreck. The ship may have sunk, but the pigs were able to swim to the shore and decided the Bahamas were nice enough to stay. Lucky pigs!
Today, the pigs are happy residents of the Big Major Cay in Exuma. Therefore, you will need to take a boat to the island. However, due the pig’s draw to visitors and international fame, other islands try to replicate the adventure. This makes it easier to experience the playful adventure without needing a boat or special travel plans.
Since swimming with the pigs is becoming a big tourist draw, the tour guides and employees go to great lengths to make sure the pigs are cared for. Not only are they well fed and provided with fresh water, but also the pigs are checked up by veterinarians on a monthly basis.
The Feeding
For the pigs in Big Major Cay, the government is establishing new rules on tourists feeding the pigs because of their premature deaths. However, other sites, such as Crystal Cove in Grand Bahamas, already put rules into place for the pig’s safety. They limit the food being fed by tourists to fresh apples and monitor the feeding of the pigs.
The tour guides place the apples on kabob sticks so the feeding pigs do not ingest the sea water or sand. When they had leftover apples, we fed the pigs out of the palm of our hands.
While the pigs rush around looking for the next slice, sometimes the apples fall out of our hands, but the guides are quick to react and make sure the pigs do not eat them. Kudos to them for keeping the pigs safe!
These alternative locations to swim with the pigs are not the “original pigs” in Exuma, but the experience is the same. I support these alternative tours since they seem to focus more on the attention and care of the pigs.
Although you are safe with the pigs, make sure you are careful when you have food in your hand. Laying your hand flat with the apple slices in the palm will prevent unintentional nibbles by the pig. Since they are large animals, be careful holding food items. If they smell the food, a pig may chase you, which can be intimidating because of their size.
The Experience
We all waited with baited breath on a sandbar, and watched the tree line for the arrival of the pigs. As soon as they saw us, the pigs started running and swimming out to us. With apples in our hands, they were all excited for our visit and started munching away.
The larger pigs arrived first. All of them buzzed around from kabob stick to kabob stick collecting as many apples as they desired. After a few minutes, a collective awe from other tour group participants brought my attention back to the tree line. All the piglets started charging into the water to get the treats from us.
Although they are piglets and small, they are still heavy. While the larger pigs weighed several hundreds of pounds, these babies were roughly 60-100 pounds of apple-seeking love.
Each pig waddled around on the sandbar as eager hands provided them with a snack. Occasionally, a tour guide would pick up a piglet for us to have a mini-photo shoot with them. Each time, a long squeal would erupt from their tiny frames, but once in our hands, they were very content. So much, the piglets enjoyed being rocked like a baby.
After all the apples ran out, the tour guides started directing us out to the water. Since the water was roughly 3 ft deep, we were waist deep in the Caribbean Sea. However, for the pigs it was much deeper, and they all started kicking their little legs to swim after us.
The waters filled with snorting and squeals of the pigs (and the occasional poop) as they paddle through the crystal clear water. I am sure that the cool water felt good for them on this hot day. It sure did for me!
When two nostrils head straight towards you, all you could do was laugh and squeal with excitement along with them. Seeing the pigs swim was one of the highlights of my time in the Bahamas!
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Would You Like to Swim with a Pig?
