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Beauty is Sometimes Skin Deep

Rob and Amber, who arrived in Quinto, Ecuador in first place, were the first team to depart, with instructions to fly to Santiago, Chile. When they landed, they were to travel to the headquarters of Codelco, the largest copper mining company in the world.

On the way out of the park, Charla and Mirna managed to get their truck stuck in the mud, and were helped out by those overly-nice folks from Kentucky, David and Mary, which actually lead Mirna to say that they were trustworthy. Too bad the same couldn't be said for her. There I go with the foreshadowing again. Keep reading to see what I mean.

By the time last-place Kevin and Drew hit the road, they managed to run their truck into the ditch, too. Unlike Charla and Mirna, however, they just had to tough it out, however, and they were able to get going on their own. Well, that's not entirely true. Kevin actually attached the towrope to himself and pulled the truck out, almost getting run over in the process. Perhaps not the brightest move. But it did work.

At the airport, Rob and Amber found the earliest flight would get them in at 1:50am, and thought they had a nice lead, along with Oswald and Danny, but it turned out that their flight was delayed, and only a frantic rush on their part managed to get them in anywhere near the other teams (but still a short while later).

Once the first plane finally arrived in Santiago, Chile, Uchenna and Joyce and Eric and Danielle were the first to arrive at Codelco, where they encountered the first Roadblock of the race.

In this Roadblock, one team member had to enter the ground floor boardroom and search the boardroom for letters of the alphabet that were on display. Teams needed to figure out that the majority of the letters when unscrambled would spell out one of the ten destinations inscribed on the plaques hanging on the wall. When they think they solved the puzzle, they had to show their answer to the security guard who would hand them their next clue if they were correct.

Unfortunately, it seems that the players had very few ideas of how to do this. Most were totally unobservant, and missed one or more letters. Others got the letters and had no idea what to do with them. It was actually Dustin who first put everything together to figure out that the next destination was Chuquicamata, the location of the world's largest open-pit copper mine.

The rest of the teams took their time, but generally seemed to figure things out eventually, though Joyce and Ian were utterly stumped. Frankly, Ian would probably still be in that room had Joyce not shared her answer with him. But she did, and the last two teams took off for the next stop.

At the Santiago Airport, Rob tried to stir up some trouble with Eric, because he jumped into a new line when one opened (and because Rob couldn't get there first), but ultimately all the teams were on the same flight, so it really didn't matter all that much.

Landing in Calama, the teams headed to Chuquicamata, where teams found their next Detour that had them choose between By Hand and By Machine. In By Hand, teams had to choose a two-ton tire and, by properly aligning the bolts and washers, finish securing it to a dump truck. In By Machine, each team member had to take a turn driving a huge front loader to transfer enough gravel to cover a marked yellow line on a stick.

Rob immediately chose By Machine and he and Amber quickly moved the gravel needed to get the clue, telling them to drive to the Valley of the Moon. There, the sharp turns and shifting sands required teams drive no more than 40kph. Once they exited the Valley of the Moon, they could resume driving 50kph as they searched for the Valley of the Dead, the Pit Stop for this leg of the race.

Rob and Amber's second first-place finish scored them a pair of motorcycles, while David and Mary's frustration at not being able to align the bolts on the By Hand Detour cause them to argue, while Teri and Ian finished fairly well, but then they couldn't find the cars. Kevin and Drew were doing well, with a slim lead over three teams, but they missed the sign that told them when they left the Valley of the Moon, and so they didn't know when they could speed up again, and this, couple with the injuries they had already suffered, ultimately lost them the leg.

• Rob and Amber are looking very strong, and seem like the team to beat.
• Oswald and Danny turned in another second-place finish.
• Joe and Bill are all hot air, but they think otherwise.
• Eric and Danielle just don't have the feel for one another.
• Uchenna and Joyce are moving up, but it may not be enough.
• Dustin and Kandice may be under the radar, or just muddling through.
• Teri and Ian are a huge unknown. Keep your eyes on them.
• Charla and Mirna are going down. They won't be here long.
• David and Mary will run out of steam soon.

The biggest surprise for me thus far is the team of Oswald and Danny. It isn't that they aren't good. Their easy-going nature is obvious, but the fact that they've finished second two legs in a row is just amazing. I think that we may want to keep our eyes on them.