Hey peeps!
As you MAY KNOW (I spammed the heck out of these little piggy faces on Instagram!!) I recently met the “famous swimming pigs of Abaco”!
Now, firstly did you know that pigs can swim? And secondly, did you know that the Bahamas has swimming pigs?
Well I’d heard about the swimming pigs before, I’d probably seen them on Instagram, being famous pigs and all that. I knew they were found frolicking in the sand in the Bahamas, on an island in the Exumas. So when we were recently planning our holiday to the Bahamas, I told Chris I’d like to try and see the swimming pigs if we could. But it was harder than we thought!
We were staying in Freeport for a week or so and wanted to visit another Bahamian island while we were there. We looked at getting to and from the Exumas and it was working out really expensive, plus we’d have needed to fly via Nassau and it was going to take up most of a day to get there, and another to get back, which seemed daft for just a four day trip. So we shelved the piggy-visit, and I was a little bit sad, but nevermind, I’d still enjoy my jolly holidays.
We chose to visit Marsh Harbour in the Abacos instead, a much quicker 30-min or so flight via Flamingo Air (yes, flamingo!!) + a teeny tiny propeller plane (argh) - far more sensible than going all the way to the Exumas to see the pigs.
Well we soon found out that the Abaco islands have swimming pigs, too! They’re just not as famous as their brothers / sisters / long lost uncles in the Exumas. Even the plane had a piggy pic!
We were in Marsh Harbour for three days and found it quite difficult to find out how to see the pigs.
To cut it short this is what we found out about visiting the Abaco pigs:
You can take a day trip, it’s a whole day and departs from Treasure Cay. (Eg trip here.) We didn’t have enough time for a whole day trip.
To get to Treasure Cay you need to rent a car (approx $50) and drive there (approx 45 mins mostly on one long road).
You can charter a boat from Marsh Harbour - it would set you back a cool $800.
We were about to give up hope when Chris found a website with a link to Sunset Marine tours + we booked with them. It cost $55 per person and we had our own private tour, picked up from Treasure Cay. We met them at 10am and were probably back in Treasure Cay for 11am.
I didn’t really know what to expect, but the pigs were scarier than they look! You must remember that they are still wild animals and they’re constantly fighting and shoving each other to compete for food.
Our guide encouraged us to feed the smaller pigs and when the bigger pigs notice and come over, we had to pull our hand away because the bigger pigs will bite. It took me a while to build up the courage to try feeding the baby pigs and they did nip me too - I don’t think I had my hand out flat enough.
The experience is pretty chaotic. There are tourists coming and going, trying to get photos, fuss and feed the pigs, and then leave. I’m glad we visited the pigs but it was quite stressful. I was constantly checking behind me because the pigs were so quick I was frightened I was going to get trampled by one of them and end up in the sand with pigs on top of me (LOL!!).
It’s really very bizarre seeing pigs snuffling and sniffling around on a tropical desert island, and there were chickens with these pigs, too! We didn’t actually see much SWIMMING from the pigs, but they do venture into the water to chase after food!
Our guide told us that there’s a hotel being built on Piggyville beach (it was under construction while we were there) and people can come and stay WITH the pigs. I’m not sure if I’d be keen on that! :D
So that’s pretty much my review of the famous swimming pigs. I’d really recommend Sunset Marina Tours, it was a lovely trip and our guide was really chatty, informative and just generally nice!
Now for all my pix….. ->>>> :)
Sadie x
