Check out who came to visit...

This girl just rolled up on a group of us as we were smoking a giant joint just under the hillside army base on the northern end of Lobitos Peru. 

The waves were pounding so hard and loud we didn't hear her scraping up beside us until she was just a couple of meters away. 

I turned and jumped when what my brain first registered as a rock dug its fins into the sand and moved right at me. It was alive! Usually when we see a turtle here it is freshly dead and covered with crabs....

But this one was alive and just saying what's up! We posed for pictures while I let myself be overcome with gratitude for the encounter. It's impossible to feel at the same time: gratitude and anger, jealousy, regret, sadness.

Thanks Turtle Friend!