Better than the Amazing Race

“What a ridiculous show,” was my first thought when The Amazing Race came out many years ago. Why travel around the world to spend just a day or two in each place, performing silly challenges, all in the quest for a million dollars? How can you even call that travel?

And yet, though it took several years, I somehow got sucked into watching host Phil Keoghan lead a dozen or so teams of two around the world in this absurd quest for money and fame. I’m addicted to the show now, but I really don’t know why as I still can’t really stand the whole concept of it.

Each season, I eagerly await new episodes to find out who will be eliminated. I grow fond of the teams that are low maintenance, kind, and entertaining – the type of people I’d love to travel with. I loathe the teams that are constantly bickering, are too focused on winning, or just seem like they’d be awful travel companions.

This season had all of those teams and more, plus I got to watch the contestants travel through Colombia following the exact same paths I walked in places like Medellín and Guatapé.

And of course I fantasize about running the race myself. Many people have told me I should try it, and there have been moments when I thought I might.

But now I know that I’ve found something even better than The Amazing Race.

I get to travel the world slowly, taking my time to hike for days, volunteer for weeks, visit friends, make new friends, and just chill while living in another culture. And I have the time to make an attempt to leave a positive impact in some way which to me is an important part of traveling.

The thrill of The Amazing Race, I’m convinced, comes in watching it, not actually doing it. I’d like to think I’d be a perfect and lovable racer, but who’s to say I wouldn’t lose my cool if I were a sleep-deprived contestant who just couldn’t accomplish a simple task?

I’d rather not have cameras pointed at me when I’m at my worst moments.

In a way, I do experience the race when I travel. As I said to my hiking companions on one of our many long uphill/downhill treks in Peru, I like to sometimes imagine I’m in the race and have to push just a little harder to get to the next checkpoint. It’s weird, I know, but it helps!

A door opens to a jam-packed bus or metro in Rio or Medellín? No worries, it becomes an Amazing Race detour in my mind and I just squeeze into the crowd so as not to be eliminated.

Overcome with fear before jumping into shark-infested waters? Just imagine the world is watching, Phil is waiting, and take the plunge.

The final episode of each season ends with the winning team racing to the finish line where all of the previously eliminated racers greet them with cheers and applause. What a moving moment after a grueling race!

Again, I’ve found something better. The crowd at Westerly ARC‘s weekly gathering broke into spontaneous applause when I arrived last Sunday. So unexpected, but what a warm welcome home! And of course, I’ve been seeing my grandkids which is definitely worth more than a million dollars.

On an unrelated note . . . Returning to the US just in time for Pride month, I’m reminded of these signs I saw in the airport in Lima. In a place that is viewed as full of “machismo” they have figured out how to make this small and non-threatening accommodation in the spirit of being more inclusive. It stands in stark contrast to the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and legislation being passed across the US and discussed right here in my corner of Rhode Island. Stay vigilant!

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

Audre Lorde