The Amazing Race 36, Episode 2

Puerto Vallarta (Mexico)

Like the season premiere last week, this second episode of The Amazing Race 36 took place entirely in Puerto Vallarta — but in an even smaller area, with the cast members travelling from each checkpoint or challenge to the next entirely on foot.

Without maps, or with maps that didn’t show the landmarks they needed to find, the racers relied on asking passers-by for directions. That worked surprisingly well, even for those racers who didn’t speak Spanish. They were helped by the fact that Puerto Vallarta has one of the largest concentrations of of American expats — a mix of US and Canadian retirees and digital remote workers — of any city in the world. Many of the people who gave the racers directions appeared to be “gringo” local residents. Many of these informants also appeared somewhere between bemused and disgusted at the behavior of racers shouting the name of their destination randomly into a street scene. Even in a race, you are more likely to get good directions if you ask a specific person rather than calling for help from the world at large. Save general alarms and shouting for help like that for real emergencies.

Pick someone to ask for directions who doesn’t look too busy already. If you know a local language, preface your question with a greeting and an apology for bothering them. If you don’t know their language, start with, “Excuse me. May I speak English?” — and then a greeting if they do speak English. There are places and cultures, including some in the US, where it would be rude in the extreme to ask directions without first attempting a minimal self-introduction and exchange of pleasantries.

It was hot and humid, and the cast of The Amazing Race had been out in the sun all day. Several members of the cast, including one member of the team that finished last and was eliminated at the end of day, had to take breaks to recover from heat exhaustion.

It may be tempting to say that stopping to rest cost them the race, but it’s equally true that stopping to rest (or getting your travelling companion to to do) before heat exhaustion progresses to heat stroke could save a life.

Heat exhaustion is a consequence of heat and humidity, but it’s also a result, in many cases, of impatience and/or cultural insensitivity.

A common cause of heat exhaustion is trying to keep up with the pace being set by a tour group, or being unwilling to acknowledge one’s physical limits. Real-world travel doesn’t need to be a race or a physical competition, and isn’t usually improved by speed. Slow travel has many of the benefits of slow food.

What does heat exhaustion have to do with culture? An anthropologist starts with the assumption that even the strangest-seeming cultural practice serves some function, and tries to figure out what that is. Tourists are often well advised to do likewise, and not to dismiss local customs without first asking if they serve a purpose. The observation that, “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun” is a comment not about anything distinctively English but about cultural arrogance in general, and its dangers. There’s a reason for the prevalence in hot climates of the mid-day siesta followed by the evening promenade and/or night market. That’s the tradition in Mexico, including in Puerto Vallarta, except where tourists have imposed their demands for businesses to stay open through the hottest part of the day.