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As soon as the ship opens, all order dissolves into madness with teams scurrying across the ship to find the clue. It directs them to find the ship’s officer and repeat to him a famous phrase in Spanish from Captain Arturo Prat. The English translation is “Charge the ship, men.”

While the other teams scour the ship for a sign with the phrase, Team Beardo Brandon & Adam and Ice girls Ally & Ashley go straight to a local man, who clues them in. And just like that last place from the last leg Brandon & Adam are in first, yet we know it won’t last because there is still too much racing to go on this leg. Marie asks where they found it and follows it up immediately with the fact that she has the extra Express Pass. The guys just brush her off with a “Go and ask someone.” That’s pretty much the common sense approach that teams have used on the Race since the first season, Marie. Lost or confused? Ask a local.

Their next clue directs them to the Irlanda Salt Mines via taxi. After these two are off the ship and en route to the salt mines, the teams one-by-one get the same information from a local. Methinks that the producer’s hand may have been at work here but it’s not really bothering me if that is the case.

As expected, beards and blondes show up at the next destination first and it’s the season’s first Detour. The choices are Brining or Mining but before we get to some Detour action, the teams have to ride bikes down to the mines. For Brining, they must haul bags of salt and pour them into large tubs. Once they have put enough salt in the tub to where they can float and read a newspaper, they get their clue. For Mining, they have the straightforward task of breaking out large salt blocks to get their clue.

Both teams go with Mining because as Adam explains, “We look good in bathing suits but we’re much better and quicker at smashing stuff.”

The other teams filter into the Detour shortly after the leaders with all the teams, except for Travis & Nicole, opting for Mining. Dating New Englander Jason quickly questions whether or not they should choose Brining because he isn’t sure that Amy is up for the hard labor of Mining. She assures him she is fine. Luckily for the teams, both tasks are right next to each other, so switching will not involve time-consuming travel.

Brandon & Adam spy a block that looks like it has the most cracks in it and start chiseling away. Meanwhile, Ally & Ashley instantly doubt their Detour selection but give it a shot.

In what is surely a crack in my rankings, Nicole is proving to be not as physically strong as I had hoped. She is struggling something fierce with the bike and can’t figure out the gears. Travis is not playing the role of patient husband very well but he’s also not even close to being Marie. To the credit of NFL’s Chester & Ephraim and Jason & Amy, they both attempt to help and/or check on Nicole as they rolled on by. After a bike switch with Travis, the married ER docs are heading to the mines.

Also whooping and hollering down the Chilean desert are Leo & Jamal as they desperately try to rejoin their alliance Ice girls. Seeing the mining task in action with Team Beardo, the footballers, blondes and Afghanimals, Jason convinces Amy that they should just do Brining. It doesn’t take long for Ally & Ashley to jump tasks and don their bathing suits for Brining also.

Let’s see…who’s MIA at this point? Oh yeah, it’s Ex-Tim & Marie, baseball wives Nicky & Kim, OK-Tim & Danny and Team Bingo Rowan & Shane. Starting with the last of these listed, Rowan & Shane have the displeasure of being on the scenic tour of Chile courtesy of a highly disoriented cabbie. As we’ve seen many, many times before on The Amazing Race, this could be a costly luck of the draw. Meanwhile, the other three teams have started to arrive and all select Brining.

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