Having struggled through both tasks, Hoskote & Naina were the first team eliminated in The Amazing Race 23 Episode 1.
Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.
First: Tim & Marie – 2:52AM
Second: Nicole & Travis – 3:02AM
Third: Rowan & Shane – 3:08AM
Fourth: Chester & Ephraim – 3:13AM
Fifth: Nicky & Kim – 3:14AM
Sixth: Ally & Ashley – 3:20AM
Seventh: Leo & Jamal – 4:00AM
Eighth: Jason & Amy – 5:17AM
Ninth: Tim & Danny – 5:28AM
Tenth: Brandon & Adam – 5:34AM
Museo Corbeta Esmeralda is their first destination, which ensure that all teams are bunched together due to hours of operation. Once the place opens, they must find a phrase and say it in Spanish.
From here, they will head to the Irlanda salt mines, home to the world’s largest concentration of sodium chloride. The detour is a choice between mining or brining. Brining requires them to add salt to pool water until they can comfortably float. Mining requires them to break open boulders of salt in search of a clue.
Mining: Brandon & Adam, Leo & Jamal, Chester & Ephraim, Rowan & Shane
Brining: Nicole & Travis, Jason & Amy, Ally & Ashley (switched from mining), Tim & Marie, Nicky & Kim, Tim & Danny
The dumb luck tasks are normally bad news, but that doesn’t stop multiple teams from doing the mining. Before they can actually start the detour, though, they must take a bike ride to get there, which proves to be more difficult for some than others. It ultimately does not seem to matter too much which detour they choose.
A bus 24 hour bus ride will take them to their next destination of Santiago, Chile.
1st bus (departs at 1:30): Brandon & Adam, Leo & Jamal, Chester & Ephraim, Jason & Amy, Nicole & Travis
2nd bus (departs at 2:00): Tim & Marie, Ally & Ashley, Tim & Danny, Nicky & Kim
3rd bus (departs around 3:00): Rowan & Shane
Rowan & Shane, who arrived in time to take the second bus, believe they have outsmarted everybody and will be departing on the third bus instead. They later learn that this bus is just as slow as the others and they just screwed themselves out of an hour or so.
The good news for them is that this is a day long bus ride. Anything can happen. The first bus arrives on schedule. The second bus arrives second, but it’s 5 hours later. This puts the third bus only about 15 minutes behind.
We’re starting to see some early alliances form. Leo & Jamal have dubbed Ally & Ashley their race wives. Having played minor league ball, Tim knows the husband of one of the baseball wives, which allows Tim & Marie to forge an alliance with Nicky & Kim. Out of this, Nicky & Kim are likely to get an express pass while Marie’s ability to make everybody hate her at least hasn’t backfired with every single team.
The road block requires teams to play the role of shoe shiners, figuring out how to put together their equipment then pushing it six blocks. In the strangest road block I’ve ever seen, Rowan does everything correctly… except he is just working with some random street vendor rather than going where he’s supposed to go. Meanwhile, Nicky neglects to take the mat with her, and her pleas to her new ally Marie to give her the express pass fall on deaf ears. Still, though it creates some drama, just running back to get the rug is not enough to drop her behind Rowan & Shane
The pit stop for this leg of the race is Cascada de Las Animas. Leo & Jamal speak Spanish, so there’s no excuse for what just happened, but they try to stiff their cab driver, which causes them to give up the win for this leg. They both very loudly blame each other.
First: Chester & Ephraim (win a trip to Turks and Caicos)
Second: Leo & Jamal
Third: Brandon & Adam
Fourth: Nicole & Travis
Fifth: Jason & Amy
Sixth: Tim & Danny
Seventh: Ally & Ashley
Eighth: Tim & Marie
Ninth: Nicky & Kim
Eliminated: Rowan & Shane
After a couple of very bad mistakes, Rowan & Shane have been eliminated from the race.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 23 Episode 3, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.