In a nutshell - Pahrump, Nevada.  The end of the world?  No, its just the beginning.  Make your way to Sin City and book a flight to Rio.  Better be quick.  The last four there get the rotten airline.  Meet the "big guy" on Corcovado, then go kiss Fat Maria.  Reserve a boat for tommorrow.  Hey, no skipping in line!  Gondola to Sugar Loaf.  Rappel down the mountain or find a raisin in the sun.  Tocorime yacht... you can see it!  But how do you get there?  By boat, of course, but its gonna cost you.  First team to get there goes to Hawaii... last team goes home.

     Teams must make it to the airport in Las Vegas where they will catch a flight to Rio de Janerio.  The first flight leaves 2 hours earlier than the next flight, but it only has room for 7 teams.  The remaining four will leave on the later flight.  The increased security in the wake of September 11th already begins to affect the race as Gary and Dave, the first team to arrive at the airport, are stopped by security.  I guess the sight of people with backpacks sprinting through airports and buying one way tickets must look pretty suspicious to security personel.  Anyway, Gary and Dave, the first team to arrive at the airport, end up on the later flight.  The teams who got on the first flight were: Tara and Wil, Cyndi and Russel, Shola and Doyin, Blake and Paige, Hope and Norm, Chris and Alex, and Mary and Peach.  The teams who had to wait two hours were: Oswald and Danny, Gary and Dave, Peggy and Claire, and Deidre and Hillary.

     When the teams arrive in Rio de Janerio, they grab taxis and race to the top of Corcovado Mountain to see the "big guy." The "big guy" is the Cristo Redentor ("Christ the Redeeemer") statue located on the top of this mountain.  Its a bumpy ride up the mountain, but the teams arrive and find the route marker which directs them to take a boat to Paqueta Island, where they will have to kiss "Fat Maria."  So the teams race back down the mountain and get to the dock.  Most of the teams go to the Southern Dock where they wait for the Ferry to take them to the island.  Cyndi and Russel, however, go to the Northern Dock.  They get a little nervous when their boat take a while to arrive, but, unbeknownst to them, they have just made a wise move because the boat they will be getting on is a hydrofoil and is much faster than the ferry.

     As the teams arrive on Paqueta Island, they determine that "fat maria" is actually a tree.  So they go and kiss the tree and then get the next route info packet, which tell them to go to Ilha Tours and book a boat to take them back across the next day.  There are three boats, each separated by 45 minutes.  The first boat will hold three people, while the second and third boat will hold 4.  As the teams arrive at Ilha tours and try to find the reservation desk, much chaos ensues.  Tara actually finds the desk before several other teams arrived. Wil, however, was inside and as Tara desperately called for him, Blake and Paige arrived and got the last spot on the first boat.  This angered Wil, and there was a loud argument.  Nevertheless, the teams on the first boat were the pastors, Blake and Paige, and the twins.  The second boat had Tara and Wil, Hope and Norm, the sisters, and Chris and Alex.  The rest of the teams were on the last boat.

     When back on the mainland, teams had to make it to the second level of sugar loaf mountain.  To get there they had to take a gondola.  When they got there, they were presented with a detour.  The Mountain option required teams to rappel the shear face of Sugar Loaf Mountain.  The Beach option required teams to go back down the gondola and hire transportation to Ipanema Beach to find "The girl from Ipanema," but this required travelling a farther distance.  All the teams except the grannies chose to take the mountain option.  However, this may have actually been what saved the Grannies from elimination this week.  Deidre had a rough time making it down the mountain, giving the grannies a chance to get ahead.  They found the girl on the beach will little trouble, and it also looks like they had an advantage maybe because the pit stop was closer from the beach than from the mountain.

    The pit stop for this episode was a yacht named Tocorime which was locacated off of Urca Beach in Guanabara Bay.  To get there, teams had to hire a boat to take them the short distance, which proved to be a costly trip.  Tara and Wil were the first to arrive at the pit stop, and as a reward, won a vacation to Hawaii.  Blake and Paige and Hope and Norm saved money by pooling their resources and sharing a boat.  In the end, the grannies barely edged out Deidre and Hillary.  Deidre and Hillary were the first team eliminated.