|
 |
|
|
TWICE AS NICE FOR ROB & AMBER: KEVIN & DREW ELIMINATED
While an early plane delay set Rob & Amber behind, the pair continued to set the pace in Chile as they collected another first place finish. On the brink of elimination, sparks flew between Charla & Mirna and beauty queens Dustin & Kandice over a taxi, but in the end, a missed speed limit sign caused Kevin and his ailing partner, Drew to step on the mat in last place.
ROCKY ROAD
Departing the Pit Stop in first place at 7:42am, newlyweds Rob & Amber opened their clue instructing them to fly over 2,400 miles to Santiago, Chile. When they landed, they had to travel twelve miles by taxi to the corporate headquarters of Codelco, the largest copper mining company in the world.
The rough terrain leaving Cotopaxi National Park caused problems for a few Teams. After Mirna got her truck stuck in a muddy ditch, her new friends and allies coal miner and wife David & Mary used a towrope to rescue her and her cousin, Charla. Afterwards, Mirna remarked, "We like David & Mary. They're definitely the most trustworthy of the other Teams that are here. So I guess you could call it a little bit of an alliance."
Nearly an hour later, last place Kevin & Drew departed the Pit Stop hoping to catch the other Teams. Drew, who had a difficult night because of altitude sickness and his nagging shoulder injury, managed to run his truck into a ditch as Mirna had earlier. With nobody to help them out, Kevin took the initiative to attach the towrope to himself in front of the truck pulling as hard as he could while Drew gunned the engine. This Darwin Award moment in the making actually paid off as the truck began to move. The only snag occurred when Drew kept accelerating after driving past Kevin forgetting he was still attached to the truck. Averting disaster, a panicked Kevin shouted for Drew to stop and the pair then continued on their way to the airport.
FINDING FLIGHTS
Arriving at Quito Airport, newlyweds Rob & Amber discovered the earliest flight to Santiago would be on LAN, connecting through Lima and landing at 1:50am. However, the flight also connected in Guayaquil that required a local carrier because LAN didn't fly domestic routes. As Rob & Amber purchased their tickets and headed to Guayaquil, best friends Oswald & Danny booked the same LAN flight at a travel agency, but took a later regional flight to Guayaquil.
Soon, the remaining eight Teams began to assemble at Quito Airport all booking tickets on a later Taca flight, also connecting through Lima that would land in Santiago at 2:30am. With the newlyweds already out of the airport, the burning question on everyone's mind was, "Where are Rob & Amber?" This played into Rob's hand as he noted, "I want them to be preoccupied with us because it distracts them from what they should be doing." However, Rob & Amber and Oswald & Danny got blindsided by a distraction of their own when their flight from Guayaquil to Lima was delayed resulting in a revised landing time in Santiago at 2:50am. The quartet knew their only hope would be to catch the Taca flight when they landed in Lima.
CAUSING A STIR
As the other eight Teams boarded their Taca flight to Lima, coal miner and wife David & Mary put their bags in the overhead bin of the first class cabin, a trick they learned on the last race, but watched in shock as an irritable Drew quickly threw the bags on the floor. Defending his action, Drew said, "You put your ___ where your seat is. That's it." David warned, "Drew's the only one playing dirty. So he started it, so it's on."
Landing in Lima, the eight Teams boarded their connecting Taca flight to Santiago just as Rob & Amber's and Oswald & Danny's delayed flight landed. After pleading and begging to get onto the Taca flight, they received the bad news that the flight had closed. Now faced with landing fifteen minutes behind the other Teams, Rob lamented, "Within a period of ten minutes you can go from being in first place to last place. It's a miserable game this race." |
 1 | |
|
|
|
