Bahamas 2026 – Freeport- The woman who hugs sharks

Cristina Zenato is the reason why I am here in Bahamas.

To be totally honest, I had no idea she existed till one year ago.

I was not even supposed to go to Bahamas.

I was aiming at Fiji.

It was March 2025 and I had just started to do my research about Fiji, how to go there, where to dive, etc. etc. It turned out that the end of the year it’s not the best season, so I had to change my plans. Where should I go?

Almost simultaneously, two friends of mine, Eva and Michelle, well acquainted with my passion for diving and love for sharks, sent me a couple of reels on Instagram on this Cristina Zenato, in Bahamas.“Oh, Bahamas, why not? It sounds good.”

And

“Oh, she’s Italian. Cool”.

I quickly flick through her website. Cristina removes hooks from sharks mouths and so far she had collected more than 300 hooks. She is also an expert cave diver and explorer.

Then I have a look at her website  at the list of activities she offers and I stare at the title of one of them for a few minutes.

It says:

SHARK INTERACTIVE COURSE.

I let these 3 words land within me.

I don’t know what it is, but I know I want to do it. 

Everything happens then very quickly. 

I write to Cristina, she replies, I book for January 2026 and pay the deposit.

It is March 24th, 2025.

And then, the unthinkable.

On March 25th 2025, Facebook shows me one of my memories of 6 years earlier. It’s a BBC documentary on THE WOMAN THAT HUGS SHARKS”. It’s her, it’s Cristina Zenato.

My comment on that posts says: “ I want to do that as well”. 

How come I did not recognize her name?

Even more astonishing, I published that post in 2019, on March 24th.

That wish, expressed 6 years ago without really believing in it, it’s going to become a reality.

Now, I’m not an astrologist, but don’t tell me that this is not some divine cosmic timing or alignment or whatever, because I would not believe that, so just save your breath.

Nothing happens without a reason.

So, now I am here, in front of her. It’s her, her husband Kewin Lorenzen – among other, underwater photographer and videographer – the skipper and me. 

Cristina starts briefing me on what’s going to happen, while the boat is bringing us to the dive site. 

The sky is pouring water and the sea is so rough that the minimal dose of Stugeron I took is completely useless, but it’s not a bit of nausea that’s going to stop me from diving today. I crossed the Atlantic to meet Cristina and her sharks, and this is what I’m going to do, period. 

She helps me wearing the chainmail – in between dry heaves – while I think of Frodo and his elven mithril chainmail. Then, in the water I feel relieved and we start the descent.

So, it’s going to happen for real. In few minutes, I will be introduced to her sharks. 

“Dear Sharks, this is Elena. She came from Italy especially to meet you, be polite and say hallo”. 

We go down on the anchor chain and on the bottom – 15 mt depth – we took our fins off and walk on the bottom of the sea.

Just this per se it’s extraordinary. We are not floating, we are not swimming, we are really walking. I believe the first astronauts on the moon must have experienced a similar feeling. 

Finally we reach our spot and we stop. She grabs my left hand with her right hand. In her left hand, she holds the tube with the fishes inside that will attract the sharks, while my right hand is stuck to my torso and I am only supposed to move it only when the shark is close enough to be caressed. Yes, caressed, you read well. I’m going to caress sharks, following Cristina’s meticulous instructions, while Kewin Lorenzen is filming us. 

And it starts.

Actually I’m hesitating, because I am a little bit afraid, not that the shark would injure me, but rather the other way round, I’m afraid to harm them. In the meantime I look at them well and study all the details: the eyes, the snout, the fins, the Lorenzini ampullae, the denticles of their skin… finally I am ready and under the vigilant eyes of Cristina I extend my arm… too early… the shark turns and no touch.

It takes a few trials before I get the right timing, but finally it happens. 

I watch my hand sliding on the shark body from the top of her head, for as long as she allows me to do so. And while she leaves, another one comes, and then a third one. They swim around us and come close, curious, attracted by the smell of the fish. Each time I dare more, so I feel brave enough to slide my hand on her dorsal fin and then till the caudal fin, to linger on their body prolong the contact as long as they allow me. 

They are all Caribbean Reef Sharks, most of them ladies, but at a certain point a gentleman shows up as well. Some of them still show traces of the hooks Cristina removed: a couple of them still have stains of rust and marks of infection, while one of them still has a small hook and a short line in her mouth. Cristina tries to free her, but she does not stay still.

Each of them was baptized. I met Crook, Floppy, Peggy and Pesty (short-name for Pestiferus).

I can’t really tell them apart (the only exception is Crook, because she has the big mark of rust left from the hook Cristina removed only yesterday), but they have been her friends for many years.

Tomorrow we are going to hug sharks together. 

Just to clarify, I performed all those actions with a special group of sharks, that is used to interact with humans, and under the surveillance of a super expert instructor.

I would not, nor encourage anybody to do it in an different framework and environment, without the assistance of an expert.