Amazing Race Recap 13 episode by Arthur Perkins
 
This is one of the most exciting Amazing Race episodes I have have seen all of then from AR1, episode 1. Episode 3 starts in Fortaleza with pitstop release at the following times:
 
Ken/Tina 1251am
Mark/Bill 1253
Terence/Sarah 113
Aja/Ty 115
Toni/Dallas 115
Nick/Starr 117
Kelly/Christy 118
Anthony/Dan 122
Marissa/Brooke 122
 
CBS chooses to not show how teams actually got to La Paz, Bolivia, which is where the clue sends them. I know from my research that this is done in a 3-step complicated route. Teams fly to Sao Paulo first and arrive late morning. They then switch to a flight to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. From there they connect to a Bolivian national airline Aerosur flight and arrive in LaPaz at 8pm, well after dark. All teams are theoretically equal off the plane. After they go to the Statue Simon Bolivar (named for the liberator of much of South America from the Spanish), they are given blankets and sleep on what appears to be sidewalk next to a street which is not busy when they get to sleep but the next morning it is busy and noisy. Teams wait for something to happen and it does; a newspaper delivery truck comes by with a bundle of newspapers for them specifically. Based on past Amazing Race experiences which all would know if they looked at several recent Amazing Races as preparation for AR13, teams have no problem figuring out that there is an advertisement hidden in the paper that gives them their next clue. That clue sends them to the Marvaez hat store for a Cholita hat used by the fighting cholitas, women who are adept professional wrestlers. Anybody want to guess what will be ahead?
 
Actually, what is immediately ahead is a DETOUR where teams choose between Musical March and Bumpy Ride. Musical March sounds a bit hokey. Teams walk to one of 3 plazas and peel off two drummers to form the core of their band. They then go the Plaza Abaroa where they pick up some trumpets and other performers. Somewhere on the plaza is the Band Master, who gives them their next clue. The teams choosing this are Dan/Andrew and Toni/Dallas. The other DETOUR, which 7 teams choose, involves walking to the Market de las Brusas to pick up a wooden bike with no brakes, then you maneuver it to Plaza Abaroa.  As I watched the footage of Nick and Starr doing this, I first observed a car coming through the intersection perpendicular (huge safety issue because Nick and Starr could not stop on that steep section), but later in their ride I saw a motorcyclist (presumably a policeman) blocking traffic from a side street. Teams completed this DETOUR is this order:
 
Mark/Bill
Marissa/Brooke
Andrew/Dan
Terence/Sarah
Ken/Tina
Nick/Starr
Aja/Ty
Kelly/Christy
Toni/Dallas
 
All teams except the last are given the opportunity to U-Turn a following team. All decide not to, although Kelly/Christy may have regretted that decision since they may not have known that Toni/Dallas were behind them. Anyway the teams take taxis to the Multifunctional Arena in El Alto, which is several thousand feet higher than LaPaz are above 13,000 feet. This causes respiratory problems for one team member. Taxi performance is highly variable. This Roadblock  is for one team member to choose a cholita to teach them her "tricks of the trade". It appears that professional wrestling is much like in the U.S. with highly choreographed entertainment. After learning 6 moves required to keep going, that team member will demonstrate them in the ring for the audience and a judge. If they succeed, they get their clue. It they don't, they must return to the practice ring to learn what they missed and then return to the main ring to demonstrate.
 
So much low-brow entertainment ensues. Many of the wrestlers get it right the first time. The moves are:
 
Chest Kick
Taunting
Re-Entry
Duck & Flip
Kicked
Slapshot
 
Winners head for Mirador El Monticulo, which is the pitstop. The initial finishing order was basically the same at both places:
 
1. Ken/Tina for their second win
2. Toni/Dallas made a huge comeback with the 2 last taxi rides after finishing last at plaza Abaroa
3. Terence/Sarah, who had reread the clue while in a forbidden taxi and went back to walk as required to the Bumpy Ride DETOUR
4. Marissa/Brooke, finally out of last place
5. Aja/Ty
6. Nick/Starr, who have been disappointing the last 2 legs
7. Anthony/Dan
8. Bill/Mark arrive in this placement. However, they also used a taxi by not reading their clue carefully. The incur a 30 minute penalty and have about a 0 chance of surviving. It should be noted that Bill took 3 training sessions to get all 6 right in the right. If he had not screwed up that second task they might have survived. Kelly/Christy finally make it to the pitstop and are joyous to discover that they are #8 and Bill/Mark are eliminated.
 
It doesn't matter because Kelly/Christy will have a difficult time getting to the Final 3, although I think Bill/Mark could have. The irony that they point out is they were the one team who had to excel (and expected to do so) at reading clues but they missed key information. An interpersonal drama that was hyped up during this episode was about Nick and Starr encouraging Aja/Ty to U-Turn Kelly/Christy. In the end Nick/Starr had the opportunity to do that themselves but elected not to. However, Aja made trouble by telling Kelly/Christy about the request to build tension between Nick/Starr and Kelly/Christie.
 
I think this was one of the most exciting episodes ever. The Bumpy Ride and the cholita demonstration were about as entertaining as anything I've seen on an Amazing Race and the finish had everyone on edge.

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