Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you’re having a great start to the week.
If you read my last post, then you know that Tania and I recently spent a week in the beautiful Bahamas, on the aptly named Paradise Island (near Nassau.) This was both my and Tania’s first experience at an all-inclusive resort, and while we were certainly looking forward to relaxing by the pool with daiquiris in hand, we’re generally pretty active travelers and had worried that we might get bored. I’m happy to report that this wasn’t the case, and a big reason why is because we didn’t just stay at the resort the whole time. While we definitely carved out lots of time to laze around poolside, we also planned a few fun outings off the resort to keep us out of trouble. One of those was a full-day boat excursion to the Exumas to see the famous swimming pigs!
The swimming pigs are a colony of feral pigs that live on an uninhabited island called Big Major Cay, one of the 360+ islands of The Bahamas’ Exuma Cays. Although there are many theories, it’s truly a mystery how the pigs ended up there. Some say they were dropped on the island by a group of sailors who intended to return and cook them, but never did. Others claim the pigs survived a shipwreck and managed to swim to shore, where they’ve resided ever since. Whatever its origin, “Pig Beach” is now one of the most popular destinations in The Bahamas, and swimming with the pigs is on many a bucket list – including mine. In fact, when Tania and I were considering destinations for our winter getaway, I suggested The Bahamas specifically for this reason!
Pig Beach is located in the Exumas, 220 km away from our “home base” of Nassau. Not exactly a hop and a skip! If your heart is set on a swimming pigs tour, the most convenient option would be to stay in The Exumas themselves. I’ve heard that if you’re looking for a more low-key and relaxed vacation, the Exumas are a great place to stay! However, many visitors to The Bahamas – especially first-timers like us – opt to stay in bigger tourist hubs like Nassau or Freeport, since they have more resorts and attractions. So, if you’re in our boat (no pun intended) and have to get yourself from Nassau to the Exumas, you have two options:
- Take a powerboat tour. These are offered by various companies in Nassau and Paradise Island. Typically, you’ll meet at either the Nassau or Paradise Island ferry dock, although some companies will pick you up from your hotel. The power boat tour is the option we chose, and although it’s the most cost-effective choice, the distance from Nassau to the Exumas means you’re going to spend a lot of time on that boat. Our excursion was a total of 8 hours, and about 5 1/2 of those were spent on the boat. This isn’t a leisurely, relaxing boat ride either: these speed boats go fast and you’re basically hanging on for dear life most of the time! For that reason, I wouldn’t recommend the power boat tours for young kids, older folks or anyone who might find this especially uncomfortable.
- Take a combination plane-boat tour. There are also a few different companies that offer this, one of them being Bahamas Air Tours, which Tania and I considered. On these tours, you meet the operator at the Nassau airport and fly in a small plane to the Exumas, which takes only about 30 minutes. From there, you’ll still travel between the islands of the Exumas via boat, but since you’re already “in town”, you won’t spend even half as much time on the boat as you would with the full powerboat tour. While this option was appealing, we ultimately decided against it for three reasons. One: naturally, it’s more expensive (you can expect to spend 40-50% more than you would on a powerboat tour.) Two: you have to get to the airport very early, which would have meant waking up at 5:30am – not exactly what we wanted to do on our relaxing vacation! And three: I am super claustrophobic and hate flying under the best of circumstances, so the thought of taking a tiny plane did not appeal whatsoever.
Both of the above options have their pros and cons. While we ended up choosing the powerboat tour, the plane-boat tour definitely has its perks. If you’re traveling with young children, seniors, or anyone with mobility issues – or if the thought of 5+ hours on a bumpy speedboat isn’t your idea of fun – then it might be worth shelling out the extra cash for the plane-boat tour.
We first booked a tour through Powerboat Adventures. At $299 per person, this may just be the cheapest Nassau-Exumas tour in The Bahamas. Unfortunately, this ended up being one of those “you get what you pay for” situations. We had taken the advice I’d seen on many a travel blog, and booked our tour for the day right after we arrived in The Bahamas. Because it’s such a long, high-speed ride, Exumas boat tours are notoriously weather-dependent: it might be a beautiful sunny day, but if it’s windy, the tours won’t go out for safety reasons. If you book an Exumas boat tour, there’s a good chance your excursion may get postponed due to weather, so I encourage you to take the same advice we did and book it for as early on in your trip as possible. That way, even if it gets postponed, you’ll have a better chance of being able to go out before your trip is over!
Unfortunately, a few days before we left for The Bahamas, I received an email that our tour was postponed due to weather. Although I completely understand having to cancel for safety reasons, I was surprised that the tour was cancelled so far in advance. Based on my research, companies usually made the weather call the day before or the morning of the tour, and other companies I talked to were still going out on that date. However, those tour companies were also more expensive, so we decided to stick with Powerboat Adventures and go on the rescheduled date. But while in The Bahamas, I was notified that our excursion had been pushed back an additional two days, to Saturday: the day before we went home. The customer service rep assured me that this tour was guaranteed to go out because they were taking “the big boat.” When I checked around again and learned that other tour companies weren’t cancelling due to weather, I started to get suspicious – and a little nervous. As I mentioned, the main reason I’d wanted to visit The Bahamas was to fulfill my bucket list dream of swimming with the pigs, and I didn’t want to leave it to the eleventh hour – what if it got cancelled again and we missed out completely? So we went to the concierge at our resort – The Warwick Paradise Island – to see if they could help. Cyntyech at the concierge office was absolutely amazing: she was able to get us the last two spots on a tour going out the very next day! I then learned that apparently Powerboat Adventures is notoriously unreliable, and their frequent cancellations are less to do with weather, and more to do with getting a full boatload of passengers (i.e. “the big boat”) to maximize their earnings. Like I said… sometimes you really do get what you pay for! (Although I would not recommend Powerboat Adventures, to their credit, they did give us a full refund for the cancelled tour.)
Born Free Charters is the new company we booked with, and they were fabulous! At $439 a person, this tour cost $140 more than the Powerboat Adventures tour, but it was well worth it. On the morning of our tour, we made our way to the Paradise Island ferry terminal (less than a 10-minute walk from our resort) for our 8:00 check-in time. At 8:30, we boarded the 41-foot speedboat, “Jalapeno”, and settled in for the ride. The first thing we noticed about the boat was how immaculately clean it was! The boat seats up to 20 guests, which was about the size of our tour group, and it has a bathroom onboard. Captain Novato, Joey and Jasmine were the crew members; they were all amazing and their energy made the experience so much fun.
As we left Nassau’s harbour, the boat started to pick up speed and before we knew it, we were zipping along the water. As I mentioned, these speedboats go insanely fast, so you’ll want to hang on tight! It was a beautiful day, and the crew was blasting music for the whole ride, which helped make it more enjoyable. The tour includes unlimited drinks – water, soda, local beers and coolers – but due to the speed of the boat, I could really only drink anything when we were stopped! But I did love this Sands Pink Radler by The Bahamian Brewery – it was so fruity and refreshing.
After about an hour, we arrived at our first stop: Allen Cay. This cay consists of three tiny islands that are completely uninhabited… by humans, that is! But there is a creature that calls Allen Cay home: the Bahamian Rock Iguana. These iguanas are unique to The Bahamas, and they are so friendly and adorable. The crew gave us lettuce to feed them, which they absolutely loved. It was so cute watching them take tiny bites out of the giant lettuce leaves. Tania, who isn’t a huge reptile fan and was nervous to interact with them, was surprised by how much she enjoyed this part of the experience – she even called them cute!
After our stop at Allen Cay, we went back on the boat for half an hour before stopping at a famous shipwreck: drug lord Pablo Escobar’s sunken plane. The island of Norman’s Cay was once the epicenter of an international drug-smuggling ring. Smugglers would land their planes on the island’s tiny runway, refuel, then continue to the U.S. to drop off the “goods”. In 1980, Escobar’s plane missed the runway and crashed on a sandbar, and the wreck is still there today. The crew provided snorkeling gear for anyone who wanted to get an up-close look at the plane. Tania and I opted to stay on the boat – neither of us had ever snorkeled before, it was chilly in the wind and we didn’t want to get our hair wet – but it was still cool seeing it from above! (On that note, I strongly recommend bringing a sweatshirt on this tour! Even if it’s a warm day, it can get pretty cold on the water.)
From there, the boat continued its journey for about an hour before stopping at Compass Cay Marina. This cay is famous for its population of nurse sharks: bottom-dwelling sharks that look like giant catfish. Nurse sharks are renowned for their docile and friendly natures (they’re affectionately nicknamed the “puppies of the sea”) so “swimming with the sharks” is a popular activity at Compass Cay. An important note: although nurse sharks are friendly and harmless most of the time, at the end of the day, they’re wild animals. I’ve seen so many articles claim that nurse sharks are “totally” or “completely” harmless, and when the occasional bite or attack inevitably happens, people act so shocked. Any sort of animal encounter always carries risk, so it’s important to be responsible, vigilant and most importantly, respectful towards the animals. Stand still, let them come to you, and don’t grab them or tease them. Remember… you are in their home! Personally, I was on the fence about whether or not I’d actually go into the water – I had thought maybe I’d just watch from above – but as soon as I saw the sharks, I couldn’t help myself and jumped right in! I love aquatic life in general, but I think a big part of it was that the sharks looked just like giant versions of my pet catfish Shamu – a plecostomus that I had for 13 years and loved dearly – and I couldn’t resist! What I really loved about all the animal encounters on this tour is that none of the animals are in captivity or forced into anything they don’t want to do. The sharks swim wild and free, and the tour guides attract them using food. It’s always important to know that animals are being treated ethically, and what’s more incredible than interacting with wildlife in their natural habitat? The sharks were so sweet and friendly. They were clearly very familiar and comfortable with the tour operators, since they see them every day, and acted like big dogs who just wanted all the treats, pets and attention. I can definitely see how they earned that “sea puppies” moniker! This experience was hands-down my favourite part of the entire day.
From Compass Cay, it was only a 15-minute ride to our next stop: the famous swimming pigs of Big Major Cay! As we were approaching the island, we saw all the pigs waiting on shore, and some of them started swimming up to the boat. They looked so cute doing the “doggy paddle”… I can’t tell you how surreal it was to see these animals, which I’ve only ever seen on farms, swimming through the crystal blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Some people in our tour group even jumped into the water with them!
When we reached the shore and disembarked, all the pigs clamored around us, hoping for a snack. The crew gave us carrots for feeding them. Now, I’m not going to lie: as excited as I was for this, both Tania and I found the whole thing a little unsettling! Don’t get me wrong: it was definitely an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’m glad I had the chance to cross it off my bucket list. But guys… these pigs are HUGE! They ranged in size, but there were some that must have weighed upwards of 400 pounds. They’re also quite the rowdy bunch, and can be quite aggressive when it comes to food. One knocked a woman in our tour group down trying to get to her carrot, and we were warned not to turn our backs to them, as they’re known to bite. Our tour guides were very good at prepping us for the experience, and they told us what to do if the pigs got aggressive approaching us: hold your hands up, palms-out, in front of you (to show them you have no food) and tell them a firm ‘no’! (Honestly, it reminded me of dealing with rambunctious, untrained dogs in my days as an animal shelter volunteer!) Tania stayed off to the side – she’s not a fan of farm animals in general, so she was a really good sport by even getting off the boat – but even I opted not to feed the pigs. After seeing so many of the pigs fight each other for food and jump up onto people trying to grab the carrots out of their hands, it was just a little too much for me, so I just stood back and observed. It’s funny how I was so excited for the pigs, but ended up loving both the nurse shark and iguana encounters way more. Either way, I’m still glad I got to see Pig Beach for myself – talk about a unique and crazy experience!
From Big Major Cay, it was only ten minutes to our next stop: lunch! The Born Free tour includes a buffet lunch at a local island restaurant, Lorraine’s Cafe. Lorraine’s specializes in home-cooked, authentic Bahamian cuisine. We enjoyed a delicious lunch of barbecued ribs, chicken, conch fritters, rice, mac and cheese, and coleslaw. Everything was so good, but I especially loved the conch fritters. For dessert, there was a selection of fresh fruit, chocolate cake and carrot cake – of course we had to try some of each! Lorraine was so nice to talk to, and gave our group a little Bahamian slang lesson. (“Mudda sick” is their version of “no way!”)
After lunch, we got to meet even more animal friends – the sweet and friendly island cats – before getting back on the boat and beginning our journey back to Nassau.
Since the trip back to Nassau was a long one, the crew broke it up with a beach stop around the halfway point. After about an hour on the water, the boat stopped at Hawksbill Cay, a gorgeous uninhabited island with tons of natural beauty: white sand, lush vegetation and stunning rock formations. Our group was given about 45 minutes of free time on the island to swim, sunbathe and explore. It was so quiet and serene, and with such a small tour group, it really felt like we were on our own private island!
Then we hopped back onto the boat, and the crew gave us some snacks to enjoy on the last leg of our journey back to Nassau. This was the longest stretch of the ride by far, about 1 hour and 45 minutes. By the time we disembarked, Tania and I were both ready to head back to our resort and enjoy a cocktail! I’ll be honest: the time spent on the boat itself was definitely my least favourite part of the experience. This has nothing to do with the tour company or the crew – they were all amazing – but it’s just the reality of the situation! It’s a little like flying: no matter how hospitable the flight attendants or how good the food, I’ll never enjoy being on a plane – but it’s what you’ve got to do to get to your destination. However you slice it, the powerboat ride from Nassau to the Exumas is going to be fast, bumpy, windy and not the most comfortable. You’re also going to be on that boat for long stretches at a time, and for about 5 1/2 hours in total. Like I said earlier: if this doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, you may want to shell out the extra cash for the plane-boat tour (or just book a hotel in the Exumas!) But if you decide to go with a powerboat tour like we did, I can’t recommend Born Free Charters enough! They were reliable, professional, hospitable, and they planned such a fun day for us. I know that even years into the future, this day will always be one of my favourite travel memories to look back on!
I hope this post was helpful for anyone wanting to plan their own Exumas day trip. If you have any questions about our experience, feel free to send me an email – I’m always happy to offer tips and advice wherever I can.
Have you ever had a unique animal encounter while traveling? Let me know in the comments – I’d love to hear your stories!
Leave a Reply