New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Dave & Cherie: I don’t want to root against the likable clowns but the Amazing Race is just not in their bag of tricks. They should be the next ones axed.

With that, racers, South America awaits your Ugly American-isms and economic infusion from hours and hours of cab rides. Let’s get the second leg under way.

This week’s Phil-ography lesson: Salta, Peru, has the world’s tallest vineyards. I don’t know what to do with that knowledge but at least, I now have it.

With the ripping of the first three clues, Army of Two’s Rachel & Dave, Big Brother and Border Patrol all leave within three minutes of each other just after 2:45 a.m. Big Brother Brendon may not like Art & JJ because they are Border Patrol officers but apparently the guys aren’t impressed with Brendon’s college of choice. They observe, “Watch, he won’t make a decision. He’ll wait and then do what we are doing. He’s a UCLA student…what do you expect?”

Anyway, the teams are heading to the town square to get their next clue from a courier. But the field will be leveled thanks to the sunrise arrival of said courier. While the front of the pack (for now) settles in for a few hours wait, we learn that Nary & Jamie have stuck with their rouse of telling the other teams they are school teachers and not federal agents. Maybe I should redub them Team Un-Fed.





Great…now I feel horrible for underestimating Dave the Clown because he knows people underestimate him (like I do) but he’s a two-time cancer survivor, so he feels he can do anything. It will be very eerie if the clowns do indeed get eliminated this leg because that makes two seasons in a row where a team with a cancer survivor was the tenth place finisher overall (Survivor’s Ethan & Jenna from last fall’s race).

The three hour difference between first and last evaporates with the sunrise and the sound of a burro’s hooves. The courier hands the teams their clue that spells out their Detour – Boil my Water or Light my Fire.

For Boil my Water, the team has drive to a town and must assemble a solar kitchen correctly (with nothing more than the picture on the box), so that it gets hot enough to make a tea kettle boil and whistle. The solar kitchen looks like a reflective satellite dish. This task will be literally like watching water boil. For Light my Fire, they have to gather fire wood and clay; load it on a donkey; and deliver it a mile away. As mind-numbing as it sounds, I would take my chances with boiling water over dealing with a donkey.

The tension between Border Patrol and Big Brother grows as Brendon yanks the clue out of their hand. Oh the fireworks will be flying this season, provided that both teams stick around.

So far, all the teams are opting for Boil, except Border Patrol’s Art & JJ who think that there isn’t enough sun yet to get the water to boil. The others are wondering out loud what happened to Art & JJ, as Art & JJ themselves are still trying to get to the Light task.

Continued:       1       2       3       4       5