Culturally Preconditioned

I missed the last two Amazing Race episodes (one of them.. the best episode ever in TAR history! Romber getting Philiminated. Woohoo!) but now I’m back! It was nice to see them go to an exotic place (didn’t really know Ushuaia was the last stop before Antartica! And I bet not many of you know that JB is the southernmost city of mainland Asia. It’s a fact, dude!). It was kinda surprising to see Romber, who were first in the first three legs of the race, go from being first to last (and eliminated!). I guess that goes to show that anything and everything can (and will) happen in this race.

The team’s first task of the leg was unique and interesting. They had to use an avalanche beacon to find their next clue buried in the glacier. The team’s placement in the previous leg didn’t really matter since the place opens at 8 am, so all the teams were bunched up again together.

The clue tells them that their next destination was Maputo in Mozambique. Africa, baby! I think this might be the first time that all teams were given flight tickets by the producers (since there were not many flights going out of Ushuaia), but they were able to get earlier tickets on their own, just in case. Not surprisingly, all of the teams were able to get their hands on another flight which takes them to Maputo almost six hours earlier. Good job!

Their first task in Africa was to go to the Apopo Training Field and get up close and personal with a ginormous rat (which I thought was kinda cute). They needed to get a trained rat to find their next clue in the ground. I laughed out loud at the Rat named Tupac! LOL. Nothing amazingly went on there. They then had to direct their drivers to Praca Dos Summin on Nuffink in the city where they faced another detour.

Their detour (1) Pamper - get nail polishes and give manicures to the public and get a total of 30 cents or something (2) Porter - pack 10 bags of coal with approximately 45 lbs each, then deliver one of the bags to another destination. Charla & Mirna, the Beauty Queens and Teri & Ian all performed the nail polish detour, which was a very very smart move. The rest of the teams did the coal packing challenge. I was surprised to see how incredibly difficult that was compared to the manicure challenge.

After the detour was done, they had to head towards Fortaleza, the oldest building in Maputo, and more importantly the pitstop of this leg of the race. In the order of their arrival (1) CHARLA AND MIRNA - OMGWTFYAY!!!! (2) Beauty Queens (3) Teri & Ian (4) The Chas (5) Guido (6) Eric & Danielle (7) Ucheynna & Joyce. Fortunately for Ucheynna & Joyce, this was a predetermined non-eliminated leg. However, they are now marked for elimination, which means if they don’t come in first in the next leg, they will have to incur a mandatory 30 minute penalty. I always thought this is one of the harshest penalties ever, but also at the same time, it gives you an extra drive to get into first place cause you know your ass is on the line. I bet they’ll definitely go for the Fast Forward if there is one next week.

No new thoughts on the teams. I still love Charla & Mirna. Hate them or love them, they are TV Gold! The Chas are adorable. Ian seems to be slightly mellow this time around. The BQs, well they’re okay. I just wish they wouldn’t butt heads so much with Charla & Mirna. The Guidos I could care less. And actually ditto Ucheynna & Joyce. Eric & Danielle.. my hatred knows no bound for this team. They’re just a couple of douche I can do without.

Anyway, that’s it. A pretty subdued entry. Just slightly miffed cause there’s no way in hell I can get myself a new Amazing Race partner in less than 10 days. (Let’s all root for Romeo, y’all!). I knew Survivor would be the only good thing for me.. because that’s an INDIVIDUAL game. I guess life likes to throw you a curveball when you depend too much on another person. Oh well, SHIT happens…

and then you die.