Episode 2 Summary-  Travel Troubles Plague Teams

In a nutshell - Get off the boat and go dancing.  Don't forget your feather.  Are you sure your taxi driver knows where he's going?  Pedra Bonita is your next stop.  Be careful, taxi drivers can be hazardous to your health.  Freak out on hang gliders or seek out with metal detectors.  Neither sound fun?  How bout some volleyball?  Still can't decide?  Why not try all three?  Now take a 22 hour long bus ride... mechanicals problems are an added bonus.  Hey, have you seen my wallet?  Head into Iguacu falls, but don't steer too close.  Get some rest at the jungle camp.


Here are the departure times for this leg:
Tara and Wil  11:06 PM  First place
Cyndi and Russel 11:34 PM 28 minutes behind
Shola and Doyin 11:35 PM 29 minutes behind
Blake and Paige 12:19 AM 1 hour 13 minutes behind
Hope and Norm 12:19 AM 1 hour 13 minutes behind
Chris and Alex 12:20 AM 1 hour 14 minutes behind
Mary and Peach 12:45 AM 1 hour 39 minutes behind
Oswald and Danny 12:46 AM 1 hour 40 minutes behind
Gary and Dave 1:24 AM 2 hours 18 minutes behind
Peggy and Claire 1:32 AM 2 hours 26 minutes behind


     After finishing first on the last leg, Tara and Wil are the first to check out.  They recieve the route info which contains a feather and instructs them to go to a Samba Club on the outskirts of Rio de Janerio and match the feather with the headress of a dancer there.  She will give them the next clue.  Cyndi and Russel leave soon after Tara and Wil, but Tara and Wil's cab driver seems lost.  The Pastor's cab driver also seems lost, but he asks for directions and ends up beating Tara and Wil to the club.  The rest of the teams leave too and they all make it to the club.  Some teams are embarassed by the dancer's attire (or lack thereof).  Gary, on the other hand, wishes he had got her number.
      The dancer's route info tells teams to get to Pedra Bonita Mountain, which overlooks Sao Conrado Beach.  But the envelope also contains instructions to find the Fast Foward Pass.  To win it, they will have to be the first team to score ten points versus Brazilian volleyball players on Copacabana Beach, but they will have to wait until morning.  At Pedra Bonita, teams are presented with a detour.  The Freak Out option requires teams to Hang Glide from the peak to the beach below.  The Seek Out option requires teams to search for the buried route info with a metal detector on the beach below.  Both of these options will begin at 8:00 the next morning.
      Most teams decide to wait in line to hang glide.  Blake and Paige decide to go down to the beach and scope out the Seek Out option.  They come up with the idea of renting a Metal Detector and finding the route info that night so that they can go directly to it in the morning.  However, after arriving at the beach and halfheartedly inquiring about a Metal Detector, they decide to Hang Glide, now last in line.  Doyin becomes injured on the way to Pedra Bonia when a taxi cab runs over his heel.  Apparently nervous about the injury, they decide to seek the Fast Forward Pass, as do Gary and Dave.  The Grannies debate on which option to perform, but eventually decide to Hang Glide.
      The next morning, Shola and Doyin easily win the Fast Forward pass and begin their trek to the distant Jungle Camp near Iguacu Falls.  Gary and Dave decide to attempt the Seek Out option, but once two Hang Gliders launch, they decide that option would be quicker.  So they cut their losses and make it up to the top just as the last team, the Grannies, has reluctantly jumped.
      At the end of the detour, teams are told to make their way via bus to a town near Iguacu Falls on the Brazil/Argentina border, over 900 miles.  But the taxi ride to the bus station is one of those mysteries.  The teams arrived in an order totally unrelated to the orden in which they left, so the teams end up on a variety of buses.  The first bus to leave, a direct route to the town, blows a tire.  As Chris and Alex watch their driver slowly repair the tire, they decide to help.  Eventually, the twins also pitch in and get the tire changed.  They arrive only 15 minutes after the time they were originally scheduled to.  The next bus experiences no problems and gets straight there.  Gary and Dave and the grannies both take the same route via a connecting Bus in Sao Paulo, however, they are on different buses.  Gary and Dave's breaks down, but somehow, I'm still not sure exactly how, they manage to get on another bus and arrive before several other teams which left before them via a direct route.  Blake and Paige and Hope and norm wind up on the last bus.  Hope and Norm's problem was their taxi driver.  As they put it, "he took the longest route possible to the bus station."  Blake and Paige's problem was that Blake lost his wallet which contained all their money for that leg.  But they didn't give up.  They asked someone to write a sign for them which they used to beg for money.
     Once the teams arrived in this town, they grabbed a jeep an made their way to Macuco Safari Dock near Igaucu Falls.  Tara and Wil and Chris and Alex have alligned themselves, but Wil refuses to wait for them.  But, when their Jeep gets stuck in 1st gear, Wil asks Chris and Alex for help, which Tara calls "horrible" and hypocritical.  The other teams all arive in due time.
     At the dock, the teams are presented with a road block.  One team member must take a map and use it to give directions to a guy driving a boat.  They must find a route marker located near the base of the falls.  Finally, that route marker directs them to a jungle camp near the falls.
     Shola and Doyin arrive first at the camp, followed by Chris and Alex and Tara and Wil.  The grannies eventually arrive, sure they are in last place, and are stunned when they find out they are actually 8th.  Blake and Paige manage to copy a map from someone on their bus, so they have the leg up on Hope and Norm.  In the end, Blake and Paige arrive a few minutes before Hope and Norm.  Hope and Norm take their elimination in stride, saying they have had a great time and have newfound appreciation of their love for each other.