Amazing Race 9 update – Brazil nuts

Teams started out from Sao Paulo, Brazil early in the morning for the Edificio Copan building; everyone received a measly $23 for this leg of the race. The building didn’t open until eight in the morning so we have our first mega-bunching moment of the race with all 10 teams waiting. The next clue is a Roadblock and it’s a “Fire Drill.” One member from each team must climb up spiral staircases attached to the building, then rappel down the side. It’s about a twenty story run up the staircases and, while everybody starts strong, they’re pretty much walking by the top. Teams essentially arrive and leave in the order they started.

The next clue directs them to a bus station where they must take one of three buses leaving at one-hour intervals. The staggered buses are heading 100 miles away to Brotas, Brazil, where 10 VW Bugs are waiting with the next clue. Once there, teams find the Detour: Press it or Climb it. Teams may drive to a sugar plantation and distill ethanol from pressed sugar cane (then use it to power the VWs!). The other choice is to travel to a waterfall and climb up to the top, a task that Phil describes as “extremely physical.” The three youngish teams on Bus #1: Frat Boys, Burning Man, and Mojo all climb up the waterfall and head off to a coffee plantation and the next Pit Stop. By this point in the Race, Eric and Jeremy have supplanted BJ & Tyler as the most annoying team on the show with their relentless sexual innuendo. We get it, already.

The teams on buses #2 and #3 split tasks with Team Nerd, Team Boricua and (much later) Team Glamazon opting to grind sugar cane into fuel while everybody else heads to the waterfall. This seems like a foolish choice for oldsters Fran & Barry of Team Kukla but they slowly make their way up the ropes with ascenders. Lake of Team Ole Miss seems to have two volumes to his voice: off and loud. Yolanda of Team Volcano has legs made for climbing. Team Pink also makes it up the waterfall climb and I’m so grateful that the Frat Boys aren’t around to make comments which would surely appear in “Talk of the Town” section of the New Yorker.

Now with all teams driving their VW Bugs towards the Pit Stop, the Race is mostly down to who can navigate and drive an ancient manual. Lake is screaming at the stupid locals who can’t understand English, while Lisa & Joni can’t get their car to behave. But Fran & Barry have the worst problems as their car breaks down completely. TAR rules state that if a car breaks down through no fault of the driver, teams are entitled to an operating car but that there’s no time compensation (it’s just bad luck.) Later, far after all the other teams have arrived at the Pit Stop we see two teams driving in the dark: Team Kukla and Team Glamazon. In the end, the oldsters’ luck wasn’t bad enough and they arrive at the mat as team #9, to their great surprise. An emotionally exhausted Lisa & Joni arrive last and are eliminated.

Final standings:

#1 – Team Burning Man – BJ & Tyler – Prize: Travelocity trip to Tahiti
#2 – Team Frat Boys – Eric & Jeremy
#3 – Team Mojo – Joseph & Monica
#4 – Team Nerd – David & Lori
#5 – Team Volcano – Ray & Yolanda
#6 – Team Boricua – Wanda & Desiree
#7 – Team Ole Miss – Lake & Michelle
#8 – Team Pink – Dani & Dani
#9 – Team Kukla – Fran & Barry
#10 – Team Glamazon – Lisa & Joni – PHILIMINATED

Next week: Back in the USSR.

In case you missed it: the recap of last week's premiere.

Extra – Kris has her review up on Dummocrats and she’s taken the same attitude towards the Frat Boys: “I loathe these guys.” Nuf said.

More – Pat’s back into the swing with his review. Welcome back!