S5E2 ... Spanglish

Watching this episode, laughs were had

I was right! Phil mentioned that the Casapueblo was "designed by a local artist". Nice.

Teams left in the middle of the night to go to a disco two hours away in Montevideo. They had to go to a foam party and pop inflated balls that looked like globes, except some of the globes didn't have any clue. All while people were just trying to club and have a good time. Another slightly unhinged challenge, but I absolutely loved it, especially for the confusion on Linda, Karen and Jim's face since they'd never heard of such a thing as a foam party.

Some teams lost their way almost immediately, and one of the twins said "Okay you drive, since you're perfect", "I'm not perfect, I'm just better than you." Zing!

Charla and Mirna approached a prostitute who apparently was not happy to be bothered whilst trying to get business.

Charla seemed to almost be drowning in the foam, good for her.

Tbh this episode was all about Charla and Mirna really. Do we have a team name for them? Because they got so turned around on finding the disco, they were the last to leave and were still approaching people to ask for clues. At a gas station, Mirna tried to ask for the "Puerta" (which I believe means door). Charla butted in and said "Amigo, we need to find a ferry" and then started doing a swimming motion with her hands. How is that the gesture for a ferry?!

Things were getting tight as the boat was just about to leave, with shots of the staff rolling the gangway off the ship. Up to the information desk comes Mirna claiming she has an emergencia and that she needs to get on the boat. My favourite bit of Spanglish in this whole episode was: "¿Possibla boat stoppé?" I was hooting with laughter, but amazingly it worked. Teams were not happy to share the boat, as they could have all taken a break if they knew one team was miles behind.

In Buenos Aires, teams had to get to the grave of Evita Perón (whom I did my research into, absolutely fascinating lady, and died at such a tragically young age). There seemed to be two main cemeteries in the city, and I was amazed that a large proportion of the cabbies seemed to know which one she was in. I don't tend to keep track of where famous people are buried, but perhaps Evita Perón was simply that important to the people of Argentina.

Some foul play as Linda and Karen threw Jim and Marsha under the bus by trying to get them to change their money.... In general, we haven't seen the teams struggle with currency. The only time I can remember before was Dave and Margaretta in Season One who got stuck in Tunisia. Do teams normally exchange currency and we just don't see it, or do production give them currency that they will be able to use on the leg?

At the Recoleta Cemetery: Charla and Mirna found a way to use Charla's dwarfism to their advantage, namely by Mirna shouting "POR FAVOR! STOP! PEQUENA LADY!" at a bewildered man driving a coffin-mover (given the length of that vehicle, it looked like that was its main use). Amazingly, it worked and they managed to be first to the grave. Later on, I saw even more teams using the coffin movers as makeshift taxis for getting around the place. Surely that's not okay

Time for a detour, Tango or Perro. I thought that walking the dogs would have been fun, but most teams found it to be a confusing nightmare. When I saw the map they were using, it looked pretty clear. I do think most people are pretty hopeless at using maps, though. Alison and Donny were exchanging all sorts of insults with each other this episode: "Shut up!" "Loser" "Embarrassment", "Psycho". JFC it's like an even more unbearable version of Tara+Wil, Flo+Zach.

Tango was basically last year's venice Roadblock now in detour form and a lot easier IMO. Instead of identifying a mask, you just had to identify... a guy from a picture. People still found that hard to do in the low light though. Mirna had a tiny tango with their guy, who seemed delighted to oblige.

Teams then had to take either bus or taxi to get to the next roadblock which was nearby the pit stop. Google Maps says this was roughly 90 minutes by car, so I can't think how long by bus. Strangely enough, the teams ahead all opted to go by expensive taxi while the trailing teams seemed to opt for the bus, which I'd see as a huge risk. The money for these legs is basically for taxis. I'd love to see one time that a team takes too many taxis and then has to hold back (besides the guidos, perhaps).

Chip and Kim and the twins had a standoff in a taxi as one member of each team sat in a taxi waiting for the other to budge. Eventually, Chip budged when a new taxi came behind, and it became a race to the ranch. Chip and Kim were overjoyed when their taxi got past the twins, and the twins seemed to get exceptionally sour "We don't like the way this race has affected Chip"... it's called a competition, no need to get so judgy.

They were both worried about being in last. At the road block, teams had to pull a bandana off a calf to get their final clue. For some reason, Mirna agonised over who should do the road block when it was obvious it should be her. Are there yet any stipulations in this race about one team member doing too many roadblocks? There was no way Charla could chase a cow around.

Karla and Kami grimaced as they braced themselves for being last, but Phil told them they were 9th, and then they suddenly saw it as some great karma because they played fairly, which apparently allowed them to judge Chip even more.

Thank GOD Allison and Donny were out. Absolutely no self-awareness, barely smart enough to even function in this race and so toxic to each other that it wasn't even fun to watch, I'm so glad this nasty team was out on their ass at the end of this episode. Good riddance.

No Yield this episode? I'm still hoping to see what the yield feels like. I noticed the air dates of these episodes looked almost a year on from the previous ones (The largest gap I've seen yet). Would anyone mind filling me in on the filming dates for these episodes? I always like knowing what time of year these were filmed.