It should come as no surprise that on vacation I want to see animals, and be outside in nature. What better way than to see some pigs? On our recent short cruise to Nassau and Coco Cay, we just had to try out swimming with pigs on Treasure Island.

This tourist trap, ahem, I mean shore excursion, has you book tickets from your ship for a short boat ride to a private island. The guides take you on a skiff for about ten minutes until you pull up to their dock. On approach you can see the pigs in the water, on the sand, and on the hill.

When we arrived we get the speech about what we can and can’t do and how we don’t want to get our hands in the way of the pigs’ mouths. The feeding mechanism is long wooden skewers with chunks of apples. The guides tell us that we should put a chunk of apple on the end of the skewer, then hold it out in the water making them swim to get the apple. And not to baby these pigs, to make them work for their lunch. I bet the plastic bin they had held 50 pounds of cut apples.

It was a little odd at first, but the pigs seemed very happy and healthy and not aggressive. There were baby pigs everywhere and in some places nestled down in the sand in the shade. Some of them came up and over the hill with their mamas to get to the water, and after our encounter was done (which was almost an hour) many of the pigs just hung out in the ocean staying cool.

The four acre island had many adult pigs and the guides said many were rescues who now live a life of luxury on the beach. At any rate, it was fun to see them and scratch their heads and ears, and get our photos taken.

I can always find something farm-y to do wherever I am. I’m not sure I would do it again but I had a lot of fun doing this with our youngest and hanging out in the water with these big guys. This brown one was my favorite.