Jaunted

From last week's pit stop at the Valley of the Dead, teams drive to San Pedro de Atacama to find its eponymous church. Rob and Amber leave first--just before midnight--and manage to dig up a travel agency with the help of a couple locals. With their tickets to Puerto Montt booked for the next day, they're in no rush to make it anywhere.

The other teams rush to the airport. Dustin and Kandice team up with Ian and Teri, but when they take the lead to find the church, they also take the wrong road. Teri and Ian don't have much problem with that, as all the teams get to the local airport in the middle of the night.

Most teams camp out, waiting for the ticket agents to show up in the morning. Uchenna and Joyce head to a local hotel to book tix online for themselves and a couple other teams--but they can only book for Team Guido because of credit card troubles.

Only a handful of the pairs get on the first flight, which arrives in Puerto Montt just before 1 pm. The rest of the racers plan to get in an hour later. In Santiago, Teri and Ian bend the ear of a ticket agent to try to snag seats on standby. Surprise, surprise, Charla and Mirna cause trouble with the plan. Even though they stir the pot, no one gets on an earlier departure.

Once the teams get to Puerto Montt, Joe reminds us, "Rob is not Jesus." It looks to be true when Rob makes a wrong turn on the way to this week's roadblock: transferring fish from one tank to another at the Metri fishery. Danielle isn't loving it, but no one seems to be that good at wrangling flounders. Does anyone else think Danielle has a little bit of a Tara Reid thing going on? Well, she does take Eric's advice to "use your boobs" to handle the fish, so we're gonna say yes.

With the fish rodeo over, most teams get on the way to La Maquina, outside Petrohué. Rob and Amber and Eric and Danielle make it to the detour before everyone else. Teams have a choice between Vertical Limit--rock climbing--or River Wild--a short bit of white water rafting. All teams opt for rafting, which means there were no Peter and Sarah moments at the rock climb. Rob and Amber knock out the challenge and place first again.

One team does manage to hit a snag: Dustin and Kandice stop at the river rafting "put in" before grabbing their detour clue. It doesn't bother them at the time, but it will come back to haunt them. When they try to check in fourth, Phil tells the beauty queens they missed a clue. They then realize they never picked up a detour directing them to the rafting. Team Beauty has to go back to snag it before Phil will check them in.

Teri and Ian have a time on the water, too, with Teri flying overboard. Despite slow motion camera work, it isn't too big a deal. In fact, she seems to enjoy it. Dave and Mary, though, don't have fun--but they do get involved in the tightest action of the race yet. At one point, three teams are on the water at once, and Charla and Mirna came off the water first. Too bad they forgot their car key!

With the race to finish next-to-last down to Dave and Mary and Charla and Mirna, Team Kentucky still can't manage to finish off the drama queens, who had to rush back to a changing tent to recover their car key. Dave and Mary get no mercy from Phil this season, and are off the race for good.

The wrap up:
Rob and Amber win a full home gym for coming in first. Rob displays a chunk of good sense when Phil says they're first for the third straight leg: "I'd trade em all as long as we're team number one on the 13th leg." Smarter than he looks! Also, we can't wait until the race moves out of Spanish-speaking countries. Charla and Mirna may have the world's worst Spanish accents. Speaking of Cheer and Schmeer, what up with the little person at the pit stop--cliche much, Phil?

Quotable Quote:
Was it Oswald with "Sweetheart, if you get in my way, I will run you over." Or was it Joe and Bill discussing Chilean wine: "I could definitely go for a glass of chardonnay"? Oh, why not? They're both winners!

Coming Next Week:
A finish, says Phil, that everyone will be talking about. Really? So you're promising Charla and Mirna will be the next team to go? Fabulous!

Story Credits: Todd & pbb