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And despite being the first ones off the ferry and in a taxi, Josh & Brent once again find themselves separated from the pack in the wrong way. Their cabbie has taken them to the wrong place. The other three teams are at the wildest and most surreal scene yet on The Amazing Race. As they wander through about two dozen performers dressed as demons and playing with fire, the teams are having a difficult time finding the right “demon” with their clue. It’s a most bizarre task that is not too challenging but it may be challenging when they all attempt to go to sleep tonight.

The next clue points the teams to drive themselves to Centro de Alto Rendimento, which appears to be a tennis complex of some sort. The established trio of teams decides to follow on another with Longhorns in front, but they quickly lose the twins, who clearly needed more than one lesson driving a manual transmission car. Thanks to Nadiya’s inability to master the clutch, they may be medically evacuated from the Race due to whiplash injuries. Probably not but a boy can hope, can’t he?

Team Beekman has also navigated the menagerie of demons and have their clue now. With Josh & Brent behind the wheel and Nadiya grasping the basics of the stick shift to get the car rolling, all the teams are heading to the tennis complex.

Team Beefcake and the Texans are the first two there as expected. Trey and James (brown hair, no “y”) assume the Roadblock duties for this leg. They have to select a bucket of tennis balls and a tennis pro. Then the pro feeds the bucket of balls into an automatic ball server. Each person has to return 20 balls in-bounds before getting their next clue.

The athletically-inclined Trey actually plays tennis and makes short work of the challenge. The first attempt is the only one he needs. Alas, our buddy James is not faring so well. The machine is schooling him in embarrassing fashion.

Trey’s domination of the Roadblock puts their next clue in their hands. Team Longhorn is now heading to the Coves de Campanet, where they will descend into the caves and follow the music to their next clue.

I spoke too soon about Nadiya’s driving aptitude. Even my “just good enough” summation was too generous as the twins are still in the town, whereas all the other teams were on nice stretches of wide open spaces en route to the tennis Roadblock. I would like to get my hopes up that they continue to backslide but I doubt it. Josh’s bum ankle will probably flare up again despite him saying it feels better after some rest on the ferry.

James has successfully completed the Roadblock now on his second attempt and they are on the tails of Trey & Lexi. But not too much distance separates them from the Beekmans who are now at the Roadblock as Jaymes & James are leaving.

For some unknown reason, Josh of the aforementioned ankle injury decides that he would take the Roadblock. Quickly he realizes that the ankle was not better and he has already failed at his first attempt. This, my friends, is exactly why I have been consistently ranking them last. Such a decision just proves their poor judgment on the race and inability to grasp how best to approach the challenges. There is no reason that Josh should’ve taken this challenge. Another failed attempt for Josh and a water break later is all the time the twins need to arrive. Nadiya is on the Roadblock for Team Despicable and Natalie is on the sidelines subjecting us to the obnoxious refrain of “C’mon Twinnie” once again. The big plus is that Nadiya fails on the first try.

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