The Amazing Race Recap: Barcelona, Spain
Dude, I'm Such a Hot Giant Chick Right Now!
The penultimate leg of the race began from Ouarzazate, Morocco, and the four remaining teams set out on this leg of the race. Beauty queens Dustin and Kandice, after finishing the last leg in last place, needed a first-place finish to avoid a 30-minute penalty in the next leg, and to have much hope of making the final stretch to the million dollar prize.
Tyler and James and Lyn and Karlyn left just a moment apart, understandable as they arrived in a virtual deadlock. Rob and Kimberly were about fifteen minutes behind them, and Dustin and Kandice were perhaps another half-hour behind them. The way this season of the race has been run, not an insurmountable distance by any stretch of the imagination. The producers have done a remarkable job this time of keeping the teams tightly bunched together, so it seemed like it might be very possible for the two blondes to keep things going, but it would remain to be seen if the other teams would allow that to happen.
The first clue led the teams to Casablanca, and there to the Quartier des Habous. There they would find their next clue - a Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member had to purchase one half kilo (a bit more than one pound) of camel meat, then prepare (grind) the meat and hand it to a cook, who would prepare the meat. Then the team member had to eat the meat before getting their next clue.
Unlike the cow lips in the Fast Forward on the way to Antananarivo, Madagascar, James powered through the camel kabob, even remarking about how good it tasted. He was finishing up his meal before the second team - Dustin and Kandice even arrived. Kandice also had no problem with her meat and finished rapidly.
Meanwhile, the other two teams wandered about the Quartier des Habous, frantically searching for the clue. They did run into Tyler and James on their way out, but it wasn't until they spotted Dustin and Kandice until they were able to backtrack and find the clue box and get the meat for themselves. Perpetual finger-pointer Rob made Kimberly do the eating, and she was the only one who seemed to have any trouble with the meat.
The clue that the teams obtained told them to fly to their next stop - Barcelona, Spain. Tyler and James and Dustin and Kandice realized that they would not be able to leave until the late afternoon, and while they were waiting, Dustin and Kandice asked Tyler and James if they would let them step on the mat first, if it came to that. Tyler and James said they would not. In the rest of the waiting, the other teams caught up, so all of the teams are on the same flight to Barcelona.
Once there, teams had to take a taxi to Parc del Laberint and search the maze for their next clue. Arriving there, they found the park closed, and that it did not open until the next morning. When the morning came, teams madly dashed about to find the clue box, and found that the next clue led them to a Detour, where they had a choice between Lug It and Lob It.
In Lug It, the team has to travel four miles by taxi to the famous street known as Las Ramblas and then travel on foot to the Maremagnum Bridge where they would have to each slip on a nine-and-a-half foot tall costume of a giant from Barcelona's annual Festival of Giants. Once they became a giant, they had to walk more than a mile through the streets to the square known as Plaza de Sant Felip Neri. In Lob It, the team has to travel by taxi nine miles to a town square where they take part in a tomato fight that usually breaks out during the Tomatina Festival. They need to defend themselves while searching through a mountain of tomatoes for one that contained their clue.
With the bad luck teams have had searching for things in giant piles of stuff, I do not blame anyone for taking the Lug It route, and that's just where Dustin and Kandice headed, and Tyler and James after them. The other two teams, however, went to Lob It, and it seemed to be a good choice, despite some initial frustration at being hit by tomatoes. I've always thought that the Tomatina would be fun, but searching for a clue inside a tomato during the process would not be. Nonetheless, both Rob and Kimberly and Lyn and Karlyn finished quickly.
While Rob and Kimberly easily finished the leg first, winning a trip for two to Barbados, it appeared that Tyler and James may managed to eke out a second place finish. Alas, they turned downhill while Lyn and Karlyn came in and went uphill, which gave them the second place finish. That put Tyler and James in third, and Dustin and Kandice had no chance, coming in fourth for the second week in a row and eliminating them from the competition.
- Rob and Kimberly
- Lyn and Karlyn
- Tyler and James
- Dustin and Kandice
Tyler and James made it to the final, but they have to watch their actions. They have a tendency to take the wrong road, and that may cost them. Rob and Kimberly seem to be peaking at the right time, and I am frankly amazed that Lyn and Karlyn are still in it. I'm just not sure what to say about that. I have no idea how they managed to make it this far.
