Amazing Race Canada finds new challenges in Cuba
Amazing Race Canada competitors face challenges in Cuba
The Amazing Race Canada Tuesdays, CTV/CTV Go
On second thought, maybe picking up the machete was a bad idea.
Steph Leclair’s mind races as she holds the knife mid-air, eyeing the sugar cane that jams up her grinder. That 10-foot-long stalk and its juice are the only things stopping her and teammate Kristen McKenzie from catching up with their rivals in the Cuban leg of The Amazing Race Canada.
The detour challenge at the Museo del Ron Havana Club seems simple: grind enough sugar cane extract to fill a vat, mix it with orange juice for a twist on the traditional Cuban drink guarapo and deliver it to the locals at a cafe in Old Havana.
And right now, Jillian MacLaughlin and Emmett Blois are well ahead. So Leclair hacks through the sugar cane stalk — and into two of her fingers.
“I knew it was a bad idea. I was like, ‘No, no, no!’” says McKenzie. “We were too frantic to be handling that kind of equipment. I knew it was going to go really, really wrong. And two seconds later, it went really, really wrong.”
In a blur of blood and bellowing, a medic tends to Leclair’s wounds while McKenzie sweats through the rest of the challenge alone. The two then rush off, trying to make up ground.
Anything can happen four seasons into The Amazing Race Canada, and filming the eighth episode in Cuba is no different. It’s 33C outside, and humid enough to stick a shirt to your back in 10 minutes flat.
Havana itself is peeling and cracking and crumbling and exposed, yet still proud. Two million people strong, it’s a city bathed in neons and pastels. The women strut with strappy dresses and knowing glances. The men amble in T-shirts, linen shirts or no shirts at all.
Midcentury American cars growl through the streets, but it’s the Canadian production of The Amazing Race that’s made it here first in the television franchise — a fact showrunner Mark Lysakowski beams about.
“We’re seeing something completely new. Viewers see new things when we do things in Canada, but when we go international and the Americans have been there before, there is a frame of reference. But now we’re getting there first, which is really great,” he says.
Three episodes ago, the teams perspired their way through Vietnam. Across the Canadian map, they’ve stuck push-pins into cities such as Yellowknife, Calgary and Prince Rupert, B.C. Kilometre by kilometre, the prize is ever closer: a round-the-world trip for two, a new Chevrolet and $250,000 cash.
“This season is big. A lot of big challenges, a lot of drama,” says Lysakowski. “There’s a lot of gameplay. As the show lives its life in Canada, the racers are getting smarter and being more strategic.”
With wins in the previous three legs of the race, Leclair and McKenzie have cause to be confident — hacked fingers notwithstanding. The couple, in their 20s and dating, are former provinciallevel softball players from Toronto.
But at their next challenge — a beach volleyball game at Playas de Este, the first Face Off of the season — Leclair’s hand is throbbing and the sweat index is rising. The team they’re up against is ready to pound through a win.
“If I had had all 10 digits at that point, I would’ve been thrilled to play. But my finger was so messed up, I just felt sick to my stomach. Kristen pretty much had to win by herself,” says Leclair.
With hot sand underfoot, the game starts. Best of three advances the winners to the next stop. The losers stay behind and play the next team to arrive. Serve, bump, volley, dive. “Up and over!” “Honey, I thought you had it!” “Can I get some antiseptic for my hand?”
Twenty-five minutes later, the match is done and McKenzie is hunched over, hands on knees and dripping wet.
“The volleyball game was great — Face Off challenges are unique to the Canadian show,” says Lysakowski. “(Leclair’s injury) added a new storyline, a new texture. You can only plan so much and then you have to let the television gods do their thing.”
Here in Havana, just over halfway through the month or so of filming, producers have prepped the challenge locations the day before and crew members keep track of each other via a mobile messaging app. They’ve become so close that one photographer is shooting another crew member’s upcoming wedding.
As the sun starts drooping, seemingly grown tired in its own heat, the remaining five teams are scattered across Havana working challenges. Locals dodge bicycle taxis in the streets as reggaeton music jumps and shimmies on the air.
Already, the teams have found a replica of the Bluenose schooner at the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, learned salsa at the Plaza Vieja, worked the telescopic lens of the Camera Obscura, visited Ernest Hemingway’s room at the Ambos Mundo Hotel and made gaskets out of tires at Pedrito’s Max Brakes.
The final stop is La Divina Pastora, a harbour-side restaurant where host Jon Montgomery is waiting on the Pit Stop mat. Team after team touches base, galloping and gasping for air.
The crew members, too, have a respite. Some will stay another day, some fly ahead to the next stop, some catch an 8 a.m. flight back to Toronto.
“(There’ve been) some great stories this season, but we’ve got more coming,” says Lysakowski.