Episode 2 - Ecuador to Chile

During the pit stop Drew experienced altitude sickness, which would seem to impede him for the rest of the race. The teams take off 12 hours later in the order in which they checked in. Rob comments on how he wants people to be preoccupied with him and Amber, because they'll just end up being distracted from the goal.

When the clue is ripped open it instructs teams to drive to the airport and catch a flight to Santiago, Chile. The drive TO the airport proves to be a rather tricky one, with uneven ground and giant mud puddles. Kentucky (Dave & Mary) even stop at one point to tow Charla & Mirna's car out of the muck. Sheesh, aren't they nice.

Once at the airport there are a couple flights to choose from. One will go through Guayaquil and Lima, Peru and arrive at 1:05am and the other will take a different connection to Lima, then arrive in Santiago at 2:30am. The ONLY teams on the 1:05 flight (and who even knew about it) are Rob & Amber, and Oswald & Danny. Unfortunately for them, their first connection is delayed so their big head start is nullified when they arrive at the second connection and even up with everyone else.

I just realized when they were getting on the plane that David is wearing a Cho brothers shirt. Too cute.

Once all the teams' planes touch down they must take a taxi to the head office of a mining company, where they come across a Road Block. One member (who has great detail) must walk around a boardroom and spot letters placed on various items e.g. the tie of an executive, a note pad, a pen, etc. What teams didn't know was that on the wall of the boardroom there were pictures of mines, with their names underneath. So instead of just making note of a the letters and unscrambling them, team members could actually observe the writing on the wall.

The first team to clue into this was the Beauty Queens. They passed all those that were there trying to decipher the letters long before them. Eric (frat boy) and Joyce took a very long time, while teams came, clued in and left ahead of them. Once again Mary helps out Charla and Mirna - telling them exactly what the word is and pointing at the photo on the wall. Kevin eavesdrops and follows. Eric saw the mine name on the wall and had ALL the letters except an "H". He ruled it out because he couldn't find an "H" around the table. I mean in that case, wouldn't you just go for it anyway? About 6 teams passed him in the meantime.

They then had to hop on a plane and fly to the next destination, where the mine (with the name they deciphered) was located. At the airport, Eric skips ahead of the line when a new counter opens up. Rob vocalizes his discontent and Amber defends Eric saying, it's just something Rob would do anyway, as well.

Once they land, teams drive to the mine where there was a DETOUR: By hand or by Machine.

By hand: align bolts on a gigantic 2 tonne mining truck tire and tighten them all up. By Machine: drive a front loader and dump rock/dirt up to a certain height. Both team members must take turns.

The only teams that did "by machine" were Joe & Bill and Rob & Amber - they were all done very quickly as "by hand" proved to be a lot more painstaking and tedious.

Once complete, teams had to drive to the pit stop. During a certain portion through a sensitive ecosystem, they could only drive max 40km/h but after that, they could go the regular speed limit. Teams raced on the road, got turned around and Drew & Kevin thought it was 40km/h EVERYWHERE. Kentucky got annoyed with their "friends" Charla & Mirna because they kept passing them on the road. Mary's blood gets boiling.

Charla and Mirna pay a taxi driver to lead them where they need to go. The Beauty Queens pull up behind them and wanted info from the driver as well. Essentially, BQs were saying - why do you need to pay him all your money? Just have him draw us all a map. But Charla and Mirna were hellbent on sending the BQs away with no information and disgusted at the fact that they would want to share the driver THEY were giving ALL their money too. This is where is gets a little weird. The BQs give up and just take off meanwhile Charla and Mirna are freaking out at the cab driver saying "TAKE ALL MY MONEY!" and literally begging him to continue to help them. Seriously, it made me uncomfortable to watch this. They get in their car and rant about the nerve of the Beauty Queens. Uh huh... yeah....

At the mat in the Valley of the Dead, Chile, Rob & Amber cross first. Oswald & Danny come in 2nd with Joe and Bill following up in 3rd.

4th, Eric & Danielle, 5th Uchenna and Joyce, 6th the Beauty Queens and 7th, Terri and Ian.

8th, Charla and Mirna with Kentucky close behind. Mary is seriously pissed off, which is odd to see since she's such a sweetheart. She holds her tongue and doesn't say what's pissing her off but later in the interview she says basically, no more being nice and helping people out.

The final team to arrive is Kevin & Drew, who get eliminated.

(Photos are property of CBS)