The Amazing Race > The Amazing Race Discussion
Racing report, TAR 19, Episode 12 is on page 2
Prophet:
maf, these Race reports are :colors
apskip:
And, perhaps more importantly, they are comprehensive and accurate. maf, you are no doubt proud of the record you leave behind.
maf:
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 19, Episode 10, We Are Charlie Chaplin
Film date: 8-9/7 2011
I have tried to estimate distances and driving times every now and then. This data, from Google, is an approximation at best and may have no relationship to reality.
At the pit stop teams got the privilege of sleeping inside the Atomium. All but Andy & Tommy who first had to shoot a commercial where they customize the cars they won. The next morning (kind of) they are released in the following order:
1.Andy & Tommy 03:462.Jeremy & Sandy 04:20(+0:34)3.Ernie & Cindy 04:35(+0:49)4.Amani & Marcus 04:40(+0:54)
At the start teams are give a clue envelope and a big box. Route info: "Using the costumes in the package, dress as two famous comic strip characters". Teams are also given a picture of a comic book character standing in front of a mural. They must find this man at the mural and tell him who they are dressed up as. There are taxis provided which will drive the teams to the downtown area.
We see that reference pictures of the characters they are dressing up as have been provided in the dressing rooms. Teams are also give white pieces of cloth to make bundles in which they can carry their normal clothes. Their backpacks are nowhere to be seen.
Astonishingly none of the teams recognize that the character they are looking for is Tintin, who is a very famous Belgian comic strip. Teams are dressed up as the two detectives Dupont & Dupond from this comic. Tintin will also accept the names Jonson & Johnson and Thomson & Thompson which are used in translated versions of the comic.
Teams have to ask around in downtown Brussels in the wee hours to find out who they are dressed up as.
Choice quotes:
"Comics were not my specialty", Andy
"We are Charlie Chaplin", Tommy gets the title
Teams find Tintin in the following order:
1(+1) Jeremy & Sandy
2(-1) Ernie & Cindy
Andy & Tommy, think they are Charlie Chaplin
3(+1) Amani & Marcus
4(-3) Andy & Tommy
Route info: "Fly to Panama city, Panama". Teams must travel by train to Amsterdam and from there fly to Panama City. Once they arrive they must travel by taxi to Puerto El Corotu and from there by boat up the Chagres river to the village of Parara Puru.
All teams make the same train from Brussels which left at 08:50. It might be worth noting that none of the teams are carrying their backpacks. All they have to carry is the bundle containing their clothes and their fanny packs.
Everybody travels on the same flight, probably
KL757 AMS-PTY 14:35-18:04
At the airport teams get into taxis in the following order:
1. Andy & Tommy
2. Jeremy & Sandy
3. Ernie & Cindy
4. Amani & Marcus
Marcus got some rocks from a "dude in the hall". They are magical rocks which he meant to give to Andy & Tommy, for bad luck. But he forgot to give them to them. SO instead he trows them out the window.
It gets pitch black before the taxis arrive in what seems like the middle of nowhere (50km 0:59). But it is the right place and with the help of their flashlights teams find the boats and leave in the following order:
1(+1) Jeremy & Sandy, just before #2
2(-1) Andy & Tommy
3(+1) Amani & Marcus, just before #4
4(-1) Ernie & Cindy
Choice quotes:
"Andy & Tommy are right in front of us", Jeremy as their taxi arrive
"Shocker, they are always in first", Sandy knows how it usually is
The boat ride looks intense. It is pitch black and the boats have no lights and travel fairly fast. But the teams are trusting, the only ones who put on the provided life wests are Amani & Marcus.
Choice quotes:
"This is awesome, you can't see anything", Jeremy on a small boat going fast in complete darkness
"We just crashed our boat onto a sand bar so we're stuck", Sandy
When they arrive in the village teams are greeted with music and a sheet of paper with the title "Sign here for a tattoo appointment". Teams sign in and get the following times:
1(+1) 07:00 Andy & Tommy
2(-1) 07:20 Jeremy & Sandy
3(+0) 07:40 Amani & Marcus
4(+0) 07:40 Ernie & Cindy
Choice quotes:
"This is what's makes the Amazing Race so special, just moments like this where you come in to like a tribal village and experience a culture that you never gets to experience before", Andy appreciates the situation
"I don't know, sound like we 'bout to get that crash course in head shrinking", Marcus
"Don't break", Marcus lies down in his hammock
Teams get to spend the night in hammocks in the village and then next morning at the appointed time they are fetched by some villagers. It turns out that the tattoo is of the non-permanent type and it spells out their next destination: San Fransisco Bay.
Choice quotes:
"We didn't know if the tattoos were gonna be real or fake", Tommy
"I don't mind getting some rad tribal art", Andy
"Our goal today is to beat one team. That's all we have to do", Sandy
After the tattoo teams jump into their boats and travel back to the port where they jump into taxis. They reach the San Fransisco bay towers (42km 0:53) and find their next clue in an old fashioned clue box in the following order:
1(+0) Andy & Tommy
2(+0) Jeremy & Sandy, a minute or so after #1
3(+1) Ernie & Cindy
4(-1) Amani & Marcus, a minute or so after #3
--- Quote ---ROAD BLOCK
Who wants to walk in
rarified air?
NOTE: Andy, Sandy,
Cindy and Amani MUST
perform the Roadblock
--- End quote ---
In this road block the team member must walk a 20m long tightrope between the two towers 38 stories up in the air. They must walk to the other tower, pick up their clue and then walk back again. The task is not really all that difficult since the players are anchored to a dolly gliding on a line above and they can use this to keep their balance. But it is high up in the air so it fairly scary. There seems to be room for all players to walk simultaneously, but we never see more than one at a time.
Choice quotes:
"I'm scared of heights", Sandy
"Ah, it's mellow", Andy describes the experience
"Sandy is not looking happy right now", Tommy sees that Sandy does not look forward to this
"I'm scared of death, but I gotta do it", Sandy
"Check out the view Sandy", Andy tries to mess with her
"Holy ball", Cindy is not comfortable with heights either
"Amani, walk like a duck, it will help", Cindy give free advice to Amani
"Not looking forward to getting of top of this building. She does pretty well with heights but I don't", Marcus, who is not even doing the tightrope
"I had envisioned my kids at each end, and that kind of made it easier 'cause I know we are close to seeing them", Amani had a trick
None of the players hesitate or freak out. Some are faster (Andy) than the others but nobody loses any significant amounts of time.
Teams complete the roadblock in the following order (* denotes team member performing the road block, and the numbers how many roadblocks each team member have performed):
1(+0)Andy* & Tommy (6-6)Was very fast on the rope2(+0)Jeremy & Sandy* (6-6)3(+0)Ernie & Cindy* (6-6)4(+0)Amani* & Marcus (6-6)
--- Quote ---Success in Suez led him
to Panama. His failure
inspired others to
succeed. Find him
beneath a rooster and
you'll find your next clue.
--- End quote ---
Teams must now figure out that the clue is sending them to a statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps (8km 0:14). Jeremy & Sandy find a local who helps them figure out where they need to go. He tells their driver. Who promptly then discusses with the drivers of Ernie & Cindy and Marcus & Amani.
At the statue teams find their next clue at a man selling shaved ice. They reach it in the following order:
1(+0) Andy & Tommy
2(+0) Jeremy & Sandy
3(+0) Ernie & Cindy
4(+0) Amani & Marcus
--- Quote ---DETOUR
Detour: 'Filet' or 'Sole'
Filet: Supply stalls at El
Mercado de Mariscos with
fresh seafood. Once you
have delivered all of the
seafood from your bins, a
Fishmonger will hand you
your next clue.
Sole: in the Salsipuedes
Market, work together to
make a pair of dancing
... by hand for a waiting
...... Once the shoes
--- End quote ---
In Filet teams must hand carry various sorts of seafood to waiting stalls. Each stall will only accept a certain amount of each sort and when they are full teams must find another stall. This makes this detour harder the more teams there are doing it. They pick up their fish at King Seafood C12 in the receiving area of the market.
In Sole teams must make a pair of custom fitted leather sandals from scratch. This takes place in at Tacho Cutarras in the Salsipuedes market.
On their way to the market Jeremy & Sandy's taxi stop at a square. None of them know it but this is actually their next destination. Their driver probably saw the cameras and figured this is where they need to go. But they quickly figure out that they are in the wrong place and jump into the taxi again.
All teams meet up at the soles (1km 0:02) detour, even Amani & Marcus who got there by mistake. The latter immediately leave to find the filet option.
At Filet (1.4km 0:03) teams really had to use only their hands to carry the fish. No baskets or anything, so teams got smelly. But since only one team did this they had a fairly easy time since nobody else was competing for the same quotas.
Choice quotes:
"You ever surf around here?", Tommy ask their sandal customer
"We're having a really hard time", Sandy realizes that sandal making hard
"We're gonna smell so fishy", Amani
"Carrying all this seafood is making me hungry", Amani
"Okay, we just need to undo it", Cindy realizes they are doing the sandal straps wrong
"Shoot, Sandy & Jeremy are right behind us", Cindy in the taxi after the detour
Teams complete the detour in the following order:
1(+0) Andy & Tommy, sole
2(+2) Amani & Marcus, filet
3(+0) Ernie & Cindy, sole
4(-2) Jeremy & Sandy, sole
Route info: "At the Polera dancing in Cathedral square, find the name of your next pit stop. Warning, the last team to check in may be eliminated". Teams must now travel to Cathedral square (500-1000m 0:02) where they will encounter a group of Polera dancers. The name of their next pit stop "Panama Viejo" is written on the dress on one of the dancers, but is is hidden among the pattern. There is also a picture of it on their necklaces (a fairly big piece of metal hanging at waist height).
Choice quotes:
"Are we taxi or running? Running dude", Tommy and Andy knows that the dancing is close
At this point Andy & Tommy have a fairly big lead. They look at the dancers and all they see is that their medallions say Balboa. They know that Balboa is the name of their money and decide to ask a taxi driver if he knows Balboa. The taxi driver say he knows where it is and agrees to take them. He then proceeds to take them on a tour. First they go to the Miraflores locks (10km 0:15) (known from season 8). But this is not the right place. A man tells there is a statue of Balbos. So they go there (9km 0:11). However that also turns out to be wrong so they decide to go back to the dancers.
Choice quotes:
"There were medallions all over these girls. And all the medallions said Balboa", Andy
"It seems like he knows where he's going", Tommy boosts his self confidence in the taxi
"Yeah. I think we are good dude", Andy does the same
"We kind of blew that one, we trusted our taxi drive a little bit too much", Tommy after having visited the Miraflores lock
"And there the Pit Stop isn't", Andy at the statue
"We missed it, all we can hope is somebody else missed it to", Andy
The other teams are also having a hard time finding the name. They all meet up at the dancers. The first of the trailing teams to leave is Ernie & Cindy who leave for Balboa.
Jeremy is the only one who actually solve this puzzle. He made a sketch of the building he saw on a belt worn by the dancers and shows this to their driver. The driver recognizes this as Panama Viejo, a famous ruin and they are off.
Marcus & Amani are the last one left. They feel the pressure since they know that everybody is on their way to the pit stop. They make a quick decision and jump into a taxi for Balboa.
Choice quotes:
"We gotta dance or what?", Marcus is stumped
"Balboa is what I see on all of them, but does that take us anywhere?", Amani is puzzled
"You're sweating like I am", Marcus then proceeds to wipe the sweat of one of the dancers
"Thank you", The dancer thanks him
"You are welcome, now tell me where the clue is", Marcus makes a good attempt (but she does not tell him)
"Wow, why are you all keep doing this to me", Marcus is getting frustrated
'We got to focus, we got to look, I don't care if I'm getting in these women's way", Sandy (and the dancers oblige and stand still while the players examine them)
"It's all Balboa though", Ernie thinks he got it
"That STINKS!", Amani lets her frustration show when they are last to leave the dancers
Here all teams are about to burst with anxiety. They know that a spot in the final is on the line but none of them know if they are headed to the right place.
Just as we wonder when the snowboarders are going to catch up there is an unexpected twist. Jeremy & Sandy's taxi driver calls their drivers of Ernie & Cindy & Marcus & Amani and and tells them where to go.
Choice quotes:
"They told me to go to Panama Viejo", Taxi driver of Jeremy & Sandy
"Someone called him and now he know something and we are going somewhere", Cindy is not entirely comfortable
"We have trusted Juan all day today", Ernie on why they should trust their driver now
"We are completely lost right now, I quite don't know what to do next", Tommy is baffled back at the dancers
Eventually Andy & Tommy notice the writing on the dress on one of the dancers and are off to the pit stop.
The first three teams arrive at the Panama Viejo ruins (10km 0:17) within seconds of each other. But the pitstop is not immediately visible. They have to search a bit for it. They eventually find Phil in the following order:
1(+3) Jeremy & Sandy, win a trip to the Turks and Caicos islands
2(+1) Ernie & Cindy
3(-1) Amani & Marcus, not long after #1
4(-1) Andy & Tommy, are eliminated
Choice quotes:
"I wouldn't change anything. We did our best to find the clue and we missed it", Andy
apskip:
maf,
I am not sure you have the relative importance of the teams of Tin-Tin detectives quite right. My memory is that 2 of the 4 teams were Thompson and Tompson, 1 was Dupont and DuPond and 1 was Johnson and Jonson.
Here is what the official Tin-Tin website (associated I guess with a film opening on Dec. 21 about Tin-Tin) says: "Thomson & Thompson, the world’s clumsiest policemen, after Tintin and Snowy... are the longest-running characters in the series, appearing in 20 of the 24 Tintin books." and
"Despite the fact that they spend most of their time failing to solve crimes, dressing up in hopeless disguises and falling flat on their faces, Thomson and Thompson always end up on Tintin’s side."
kiki:
apskip
maf is absolutely right in his recap. I've read throughout the years almost all of the adventures of TinTin and I can assure you that the original name of the detectives in the French (Belgian) edition is Dupont & Dupont. Those names have been translated in the English editions as either Thompson & Thompson or Johnson & Johnson.
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