Helloooo Race fans! Last week our teams traveled to Chile, and this week continue to travel the Chilean countryside, and it is truly a beautiful place to be — even if today’s race is a little overcast and rainy.
We start off where left our racers last week, at Valparaiso, Chile, with Jeff and Jordan (Team JJ) in the lead. Teams are allowed to begin this leg of the race exactly 12 hours after they finished the last leg. Team JJ finished at 3:21 pm, so they begin at 3:21 am. and travel back to Santiago, Chile where they then board another bus for a 500+ mile trip to Puerto Varas. Sounds simple enough, right? WRONG!
Team JJ gets to the bus station first, but it is not open yet and we get some amusing footage of Jeff trying to communicate with the Spanish speaking locals using what I can only describe as Spanish sign language, to find out when the bus station opens.. It opens at 5:00 am and the other teams begin to arrive as well. This is what we call and ‘equalizer’, when all team positions are re-set by being at the same place at the same time.
Since we evidently have some time to kill at the bus station, it’s time to gossip. The lesbian princesses (Carol and Brandy) decide to recant their name-calling in the last leg of Team JJ since they came in first place (they called them Barbie and Ken and said they weren’t so bright). Then we cut to a scene where Jeff concludes that because a stray dog won’t respond to ‘come here’that it must only ‘speak Spanish’- hilarious!
The Miss Teen Team (Caite and Brent) conclude the Princesses don’t like them because they were told about the ‘tiara’comment from last week. They gay/straight Brothers, Daniel & Jordan describe The Cowboys as loners and would be surprised if they lasted much longer in the race. The Cowboys think they are underestimated because they wear cowboy hats and believe if a place doesn’t welcome hats then that’s a place they just don’t want to be. As a southern gal myself, I gotta agree! The Princesses decide they want to make an alliance with the Husband/Wife team of Heidi and Joe because ‘they’re strong’and at least one of them speaks Spanish.
Once the Santiago bus station opens the racers rush to get tickets to their next destination and the alliance between the Princesses and the Marrieds starts to ruffle feathers. The Princesses hold a place in line for the Married team and the rest of the teams don’t like that one bit, ‘What? Are we in grade school?’the Cops (Louie & Michael) say. However, the strategy works they get the last four seats on an a bus that leaves an hour earlier than any other, so I’d say it worked out pretty well for them!
The bad news is that buses don’t leave for another 12 hours so Team JJ, The Cowboys, and Team Teen (Brent & Caite) decide to look around for other ways to get there. The discover that If they leave now for Temuco and then change buses there, they can arrive at Peurto Varas tonight instead of tomorrow morning! Never judge a book by it’s cover, the supposedly ‘dumb’were smart!
Once in Temuco, the Cowboys bus leaves at 7:00 and the JJ/Teen bus leaves at 6:30. What the JJ/Teen teams don’t know is that their bus leaves from another terminal. By the time they realize it and make their way to the other terminal, they miss their bus and head back to where the Cowboys are to catchthe 7:00 bus. However, they wasted so much time traveling back and forth, they miss that bus too! This is not good for these two teams as there are no more buses leaving for Peurto Varas for the rest of the night. They finally find a bus that leaves at 1:00 am, and it’s at this point that Brent makes the comment that ‘Those Cowboys must be the most magical people ever! LOL
Thanks to tricky editing, Team JJ fans are now very worried, but ultimately, they arrive in Peurto Varas between the Cowboys and the rest of the teams, so it didn’t cost them near as much time as it seemed.
At the Detour, the teams must decide between dressing up a llama or dressing up as a condor and try to fly over a freezing lake to a buoy. Needless to say, none of them actually make it that far, fall into the freezing cold lake and swim to the buoy. Both tasks are incredibly easy and the teams waste no time getting them done and moving on. The hardest part seemed to be driving there due to the fact that Superhero-Lawyer-Mom’s (Monique & Shawne) and the Gay/Straight Brothers were dumb enough not to learn how to drive a stick-shift car before going on The Amazing Race! Duh! The Brothers also get lost on their way to the detour and they become very frustrated! We check in with Team Grands (Jody & Shannon) who are still on an even later bus to Peurto Varas and falling further behind. Once on the road to the detour Grandma Jody notes she’s having the time of her life and in confessional says that out of all her grandchildren Shannon is the one she ‘knows most closely and the one I admire the most’… boy, I’m sure glad I’m not one of her *other* grandchildren! She does know she’s on TV right?
At the Roadblock, we find out that Chile is a country of German immigrants. Who knew? The teams are at a farm where they must find 5 ingredients to make a traditional German cake. Two of these items include fresh milk, straight from the cow, and a ‘bakers dozen’of eggs. Team JJ fans are now placing bets as to whether or not they know that a bakers dozen would be 13 eggs. The Cowboys are still in first place. It’s no surprise to learn this is not the first cow they’ve ever had to milk. They easily do that, grab the other ingredients and begin their journey to the Pit Stop, a beautiful park named after the Virgin Mary, where they will be greeted by Phil and a baby llama. Altogether now… Awwwww.
The other teams aren’t having quite as much fun milking the cow, and evidently someone forgot to take the cow’s out to pasture earlier in order for them to ‘do their business’so we’re tortured with blurred scenes of cow defecation. Really CBS? Altogether now… Ewwwww!
The Princesses are not amused! They want a nice hotel with a nice restaurant and clean sheets! So it was a little satisfying to see that cows kick if they’re not milked properly! Carol got kicked pretty hard on the hand, Jeff got a little kick, Super/Lawyer/Mom Monique got kicked in the face, which Shawne thought was pretty funny. We then find out that yes, Jeff does know what a bakers dozen is, and yes, I’m actually a little impressed by that.
We flash back to the llama’s to see the Brothers and the Grands finishing up. The Cowboys, however, are running to the mat and claim First Place in the second leg, where they each win a sailboat, which I’m betting they will immediately sell to people that may actually use it. The alliance of the the Married team (Heidi and Joe) and the Princesses (Carol and Brandy) seemed to work pretty well as they finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Team Teen (Brent and Caite) finish 4th. Team JJ is getting lost on their way to the mat. Jeff is looking at the roads on a street map while Jordan says they are on San Jose, scratch that, evidently they’re on San H-O-S-E! LOL! Hey, love ’em or hate ’em, if you can’t laugh at that, you have no sense of humor at all!
While the other teams are checking in, or trying to find where to check in, the Brothers and the Grands are finishing and starting the Roadblock. However, hope is not lost for the Grands because as Jeff and Jordan are trying to find the mat, they come across the cops that are still looking for the Roadblock!
Super/Lawyer/Moms, Monique and Shawne, are team #5 and Jeff and Jordon are team #6 — whew!
The cops show up at the Roadblock where Michael breaks some eggs and can’t find the pantry. The Grands are trying to finish up, but just as Grandma was getting the milk cup filled to the top, the cow kicks her in the face! Ouch! But she got right back in there and started again, however this time with a different cow!
The Father/Daughter team of Steve and Allie, whom we’ve not seen much of during the entire episode, finish as Team #7, and the Brothers are team #8. Now it’s down to the Cops and the Grands. The cops finish the Roadblock first, but will they get lost again on the way to the mat? They seem to make it there without any problem and finish this race as Team #9. Unfortunately, that means the Grands are the last to arrive at the mat, have been eliminated from the race, and are now ready for their next great adventure together.
Next week the Princesses quiz the Cowboys on how they did so well in this leg, but the Cowboys are smarter than they look and they’re not buying the new ‘lets be friends’attitude from the ladies, and later the ladies turn on each other. I can’t wait to see that!
What did you guys think of tonight’s leg? Are you loving the Cowboys? Worried about Jeff and Jordan? Sad to see the Grands out it? What did you think of the Princess/Marrieds alliance and how they cheated the other teams out of the earlier bus by saving a place in line for them? Head to the comments below and let me know!
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I enjoyed the show, as well as your recap. Your written word Tivo's for us some refreshed memories of the racers' sense of humor, a few snarky insecurties and best yet…Grandma's grounded priorities. Your article was a delight! Thanks.
Do you think that the condor thing would have actually worked? Generally, when they descripe the detour they demonstrate how it would be done but they didn't this time. I don't think those thingies had a chance of gliding.Oh, and COMPLETELY agree that those sailboats are hitting eBay as soon as the race is done. :)
Why wouldn't the Team Grand have the Granddaughter perform the task? Knowing that they were so far behind the other teams wouldn't they want to increase their chances of staying in the race?That's not to say that they would have beaten the cops, but they were neck and neck with them at least at the farm task and could have given them a better run for the money.