The Amazing Race: Ready to Rumble

I’m starting to think that if Kelly & Christy get any more misanthropic, they just might give into the urge to finish the race in a soundproof plastic bubble immune from all sounds aside from their beloved voices, a paradise from which they can observe and cast judgment upon all they survey.  Exhibit A: during the 12-hour pit stop between legs of the race, something knocked Christy’s sports bra off a ledge.  My money’s on the wind or possibly a benevolent woodland creature with a fondness for messing with jerks.  Whatever the actual culprit, she found it necessary to blame Starr and vent at her as one might a dog bringing mud on the carpet.  Makes me wish the producers could impose delays for unsportsmanlike conduct.

After their requisite 12-hour break, the 9 remaining teams left on a jet plane to the culturally vibrant capitol of Bolivia, La Paz.  A brief but clever challenge to find race instructions hidden in the body of a newspaper immediately gave teams valuing patience and observation a leg up on the detour.  Given the choice between assembling a marching band (at what looked like a tortuously slow pace) and taking a breakneck downhill adventure on a locally-made wooden scooter, most teams opted to scoot.  And I must say that the ornately feathered safety gear was an awesomely wacky addition to the latter option.  Curiously, it was the Superbads and the Belles who opted to strike up the band while racers decades older than they went for the scootin’.  Upon completion, teams bought a popular local hat resembling a wicked cool fusion of top hat and bowler for delivery to an undisclosed party.  As much as I loved those hats, it was their recipients who made things get truly awesome.

Recently featured in National Geographic, the Fighting Cholitas are a class of female pro wrestlers in Bolivia who opt to bring the pain wearing traditional skirts and shawls.  This week’s road block?  Take em’ on!  As fun as a mandatory no holds barred cage match would have been, the challenge focuses on the still rather fun and cool-looking task of learning six essential skills and choreographing them into something believable.  Can’t say that I expected to see an ex-NFL pro pile drive a tiny Bolivian woman this week, but it sure made for good TV.  Sadly, this challenge marked the beginning of the end for personal favorites Mark & Bill, who found themselves first hampered by punishing altitude sickness and later receiving their coffin nail in the form of a 30-minute penalty for taking a taxi between challenges when they should have walked.  It simply killed me to have to watch Kelly & Christy check in at 8^th place as Mark & Bill watched helplessly, but such is the nature of the race.  No use looking backwards with regret when there’s next week’s leg in New Zealand to be looking forward to.  Is it wrong for me to pray for challenges involving old Lord of the Rings sets?

Season 13, Episode 3: Did You Push My Sports Bra off the Ledge? (originally aired October 12, 2008)

For another take on this episode, check out Unsupported by Alana D.

Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on CBS

Photographs courtesy of CBS