Surprise Birthday on the Amazon (guest author Mike Caplice)

It is not very often that you have the opportunity to celebrate your birthday in a foreign and exotic location. The Peru TemLab Group had escaped to the Amazon River, in the province of Loreto, for the weekend. Our group was keenly aware that one of its team members, Brady Johnson, was celebrating his 30th birthday during our stay. Once we were established at the Heliconia Resort, which is an hour and a half boat ride from the city of Iquitos and located on the banks of the Amazon River, we began plotting our surprise birthday party. As we brainstormed for ideas as to how it would be best to pull this surprise party off, our tour guide Ricardo mentioned taking the Heliconia Resort’s rustic wooden cruise ship called “the Spirit of the Amazon” out at night. All of us immediately agreed that this was the best idea, and we finalized the plans with Ricardo to ensure that a cake and the Resort’s music man (Freddy) would be smuggled on board and hidden until the right moment. During the day of Brady’s birthday we went out on a grueling four-hour hike into the jungle and played an intense soccer match against the locals. We were all physically exhausted but when the sun set, and as we made our way to the boat, we were all gripped by nervous excitement. We boarded the boat and began chugging upstream at a leisurely pace. After 15 minutes, the Captain of the boat expertly nestled the boat into a sandbar and turned the motor off. Ricardo winked at me notifying that it was time to launch the birthday party. I told the group that Ricardo wanted everyone in the main cabin. Brady, still having no idea that the boat ride was a cover to celebrate his birthday, settled into a chair. As the TemLab group crowded around Brady, we sprung the surprise birthday celebration. In true Peruvian fashion, each member of the group took turns expressing some heartfelt words to Brady about their friendship. On cue, after the last speaker, the birthday cake was rolled in, and the music man Freddy, with guitar in hand, appeared playing “Happy Birthday”. We sung “La Bamba” and “Cancion Del Mariachi” at the top of our lungs, waking up half the inhabitants of the Amazon.” After the fact, we all agreed, as the current pulled the boat from the sandbar and began pushing it at a fast clip, that it was a hell of a way to celebrate a birthday.