Amazing Race Family Edition update – “Donde es lefto or righto?”

Teams started out from the Panama Canal around 9pm and headed to the bus terminal to take a bus to Costa Rica. The buses were staggered in the morning, so teams that had just spent twelve hours resting at the last Pit Stop then waited an additional twelve hours until the morning. Three different buses arrived in Costa Rica, then teams needed to drive to an active volcano for the next clue. But then we find that the national park doesn’t open until the morning so teams have to sack out yet again. Between all these breaks, Team Godlewski had plenty of time to beg for cash proving once again that the money penalty in a non-elimination leg is not much of a penalty at all.

Once the volcano park opened in the morning, all the bunched-up teams raced for the next clue which was merely “go somewhere else.” At least we got a see a volcano. Teams then needed to race to the Doka coffee plantation – caution: Yield ahead. For reasons that I don’t fully understand, everybody wants to yield Team Florida. The Paolo family arrives at the coffee plantation first and yields the Weavers, meaning they need to wait an hour before they can perform the next task. This is a Roadblock and one team member must sift through a huge pile of coffee beans to find a single red bean. This is an all-woman event and teams appear to find the red bean in roughly the order they started, except for Tammy of Team Rugrats who simply cannot spot the red bean. The Weavers wait out their penalty then find the red bean, leaving the Gaghan family behind.

After the coffee plantation, teams head to the Costa Rican town of Jaco and a surf shop for the next clue. This is a Detour: Relic or Ripe. Teams may either traverse a series of rope bridges in a rain forest to find Mayan relics or head to a banana plantation where they must harvest 15 bunches of bananas. Everybody takes the Relic detour except for the Paolo family who seemed to finish the banana bunches fairly quickly. They head off to the Pit Stop in the town of Quepos as Team #1.

Meanwhile, all the other teams are working on an Amazing Race challenge that is neither amazing or challenging. Maybe it’s an unintended consequence of the Family Edition, but too many of the Detours and Roadblocks are designed such that teams finish the task in the same order they arrive at them. Thus, my despair for Team Gaghan sets in pretty early as they are the final team to arrive at the rain forest. Sure enough, that red coffee bean tripped them up; they arrive last to the mat and are eliminated. Little Carissa was pretty upset even though Mom and Dad were trying to cheer her up and Phil noted she was the youngest person to ever compete in the Race.

Final standings:

#1 – Paolo family – Team Joisey – Prize: Segway/jet ski/Vespa/ATV
#2 – Linz family – Team Cincinnati
#3 – Bransen family – Team Powerpuff (and Wally)
#4 – Godlewski family – Team Scream
#5 – Weaver family – Team Florida
#6 – Gaghan family – Team Rugrats – PHIL-LIMINATED

Next week: Team members yell at each other.
Here’s last week’s update by Mrs. Viking Pundit

Extra – This space reserved for Kris and Pat’s updates. Kris digs into the TAR archives to note that Team Gaghan got “Lena-ed” – very apt. And she also explains why the other teams loathe the Weavers since they mix Christian piety with condescending nastiness. Yeah, but the girls wear hot pants, so. That said, I wish they were gone and cutiepie Carissa could stick around for another week.

Bonus – The Closet Optimist criticizes last night’s Yield.