Last week’s season debut of the Amazing Race All Stars ended in Quito, Ecuador, where the first team to be eliminated was John Vito and Jill. Ten teams remain in this oft-maniacal race to riches adventure. Who will be eliminated next? If the teams had their say, it would (of course) be Rob and Amber. They’re back in this All Star edition after a second place finish in season seven of the Amazing Race. And from the looks of the first two episodes, they’re the team to beat.
This week’s episode of the Amazing Race All Stars began with Drew suffering from altitude sickness and getting treated with bottled oxygen. This is the same bumble-head who tripped and fell in last week’s episode, scraping his knee and injuring his shoulder. It doesn’t take rocket scientist intelligence to figure out that the constantly bickering team of Drew and Kevin will have a hard time staying in the race.
Rob and Amber (aka Romber) departed first from the pit stop at 7:42 a.m., followed by Danny and Oswald, Teri and Ian, Eric and Danielle, Joe and Bill, Dustin and Kandice, Uchenna and Joyce, Charla and Mirna, David and Mary and finally (surprise), Kevin and Drew.
The teams headed off to the airport to fly to their next destination, which was Santiago, Chile. Charla and Mirna’s car got stuck in the mud, but the nice Team Kentucky (David and Mary) helped them out. Kevin and Drew’s car also got stuck (hey, when you’re on a downward spiral, what do you expect?) and Kevin had to pull them out.
At the airport, frontrunner teams Romber and Cha Cha Cha (Danny and Oswald) scored an early flight that would get them into Santiago forty minutes before the others. But as often happens when you’re dealing with airlines, their flight was delayed. A frustrated Rob commented about how easy it is to go from first to last. Yeah, yeah, cue the violins. Seriously, what would the Amazing Race All Stars be without at least one team everyone loves to hate?
On the other plane, Drew decided to play flight attendant by yanking Kentucky’s bags out of a first-class overhead bin and dumping them on the floor. Hey, they’re in coach and that’s where their bags belonged, kapish? Uh Drew, haven’t you ever heard of karma?
Once in Santiago, the teams go to the corporate headquarters of Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, for their first task on this leg of the race.
Roadblock: Who Has An Eye For Detail?
A roadblock is a task that only one member of a team may perform. For this one, they had to search Codelco’s board room (with a meeting in progress naturally) to find random letters (a “Q” written on a tablet, an “H” engraved on a pen, and so forth.). Unscrambled, the letters matched the name of their next destination, which was noted under one of 10 pictures on the wall. Hoo boy, this task was about as exciting as watching paint dry. The only thing that saved it was seeing Joyce, who bragged about her “eye for detail,” roam clueless around the room about while one by one, the other teams figured it out and left.
Mary showed some smarts by writing down the names of the pictures first, which quickly led her to solve the task. She then exhibited her preference to value friendship over a competitive edge by pointing it out to Charla, and Kevin overheard enough to figure it out as well. All teams hopped another flight to Calama, Chile and then headed to Chuquicamata, the largest open-pit copper mine in the world.
Detour: “By Hand or “By Machine.”
A Detour is a choice between two tasks. In “By Hand,” the teams had to properly align dozens of bolts and washers to secure a two-ton tire to a truck. In “By Machine,” each team member had to operate a gigantic front loader to dump gravel into a big pile. Wow. Another riveting task here. It was at this point that I began to wonder why I bother to watch The Amazing Race.
Romber chose the “By Machine” task, with Rob commenting on his extensive construction experience as their reason. (It should be duly noted though, that tough-girl Amber operated that loader like a pro). The other teams, with the exception of Joe and Bill (Team Guido) opted for “By Hand.” Romber was first to finish followed by Team Cha Cha Cha, Uchenna and Joyce, Eric and Danielle, and the Guidos. Team Kentucky fell behind when they had to redo many of their bolts, causing Mary to pace and worry about being eliminated.
Once the teams had completed their Detour, they were to drive themselves to the next pit stop in the Valley of the Moon, a terrain so precarious it mandated a 40 kms per hour speed. From there, they needed to find the Valley of the Dead, where Phil was waiting to tell them of their fate in this second leg of the Amazing Race All Stars.
On the road, Charla and Mirna got annoyed when the “Beauty Queens” Dustin and Kandice followed them, after they had agreed to pay a taxi driver to lead them. They all stopped and Mirna demanded that the BQ’s either split the fare or drive off ahead of them. Charla thrust her fanny pack at the bewildered cab driver, yelling “Just take all my money!” Meanwhile, in a humorous twist of fate, nearly every other team drove by them as they stood around arguing.
Driving to the Valley of the Dead, teams took wrong turns, backtracked and followed each other like sheep. Hilariously, Kevin and Drew poked along at 40-km while all the teams passed them up. They (apparently) didn’t read their clue, which stated that the 40-km speed limit only applied to the Valley of the Moon section.
During this segment, Mary finds out just how “deep” her friendship is with Charla and Mirna. This team passed them without so much as a glance in their direction. Hey, it’s about time Team Kentucky learned that this show is called The Amazing Race and not The Amazing Friendship. Right?
The Pit Stop
Once again, Romber was the first team to arrive, and Phil informed them that their prize was a pair of off-road motorcycles. The last team to arrive was, of course, Kevin and Drew. As Phil was in the middle of his infamous “I’m sorry” speech, Drew had the audacity to wander off. They called him back to the loser’s mat, whereupon he gave some lame “I tried my hardest” excuse. Seriously, how could anyone be surprised that episode two of The Amazing Race All Stars ended with the elimination of these two?
