Survivor Guatemala: week 3

Something I'm yet to work out is why Nakúm were led to believe that they got "the best campsite" as a reward for winning the 11 mile hike in the first week. It doesn't seem to have any more natural shelter, access to clean water, food or firewood than the other site, and now it smells of vomit. It also has noisy neighbours, including a howler monkey who, according to Cindy the zookeeper, has been separated from his family and is crying all night because he is sad. In a piece of magnificent editing we had Judd complaining that he can't sleep because of the noise, interspersed with footage of said sad monkey and shots of Judd trying to break a stick by throwing it at a rock. Hmm, I wonder which one lives in the branch of the evolutionary tree furthest from the rest of us?

At Yaxhá, Lydia is working her heart out to keep her place in the tribe, and having excruciatingly polite conversations with Brianna about the weather to cover the fact they can't stand each other. Brian, on the other hand, seems very much in love with himself and his successful manipulation of the previous night's vote. It's slightly disturbing that he doesn’t care who gets voted off as long as he's pulling the strings, but should make for some pretty fireworks later on when the others clue in.

With the standard "C'mon in guys" Jeff explained that archaeologists have been excavating the Mayan ruins, which was the tenuous link to the task before the tribes of building an archaeologist's 'tent'. It was basically just a tarp held up with poles and ropes, and nothing like the sets on Raiders of the Lost Ark. The challenging part was that the pieces were scattered around the site, and the Survivors from each tribe were blindfolded and tied together in groups with one set of eyes from each tribe calling out instructions. It's a challenge that seems to have been done in one form or another in every series to date, but is always good for a laugh because it usually involves blindfolded people falling over and being hit in the head.

Gary's quarterbacking skills of yelling out orders to the rest of his team shone through and Yaxhá quickly had all the pieces together and were first to start assembling. Nakúm caught up once they were no longer relying on Brooke to know her left from her right, and managed to finish first and win the reward of pillows, blankets, ropes and a large tarpaulin.

The best bit, as usual, was the unexpected tensions brought about by the prize and the intra-tribe negotiations on what to do with it. After a nap, the boys from Nakúm set about improving their shelter. Bobby Jon, Brandon, Blake and Judd are treating the game like a big boys' fishing trip and wanted to have fun. Margaret wanted to do something useful with the tarp and ropes, which was a big downer for the boys and, like, totally killed the buzz man. Brooke, Cindy and Danni cleverly made themselves scarce and offered no advice to a group of men who probably all agreed with Judd's comment, "Nobody tells me what to do except my boss and my wife."

Continuing on the fishing theme, the boys next decided to make themselves crocodile bait by going for a swim to beat the 45 degree heat. Cindy wasn't going anywhere near the water, which should have been a hint to the rest of them, but as Brandon eloquently put it, "The brave may not live long, but the cautious don't live at all." He's a bit of a redneck poet that one, and I'm hoping he stays around for a while (and not just because I've got him in the sweep).

Tree mail brought feathers, headbands and war paint, with instructions to dress up as warriors for a traditional Mayan game which turned out to be suspiciously like netball. At one point Jeff even yelled out, "Now we're doing it like the Maya did", but unless they've got video footage from 700AD I’m not sure how they know that.

The court was a large net raised off the ground with two hoops at each end and three-on-three teams drawn at random trying to put the ball through their hoop to win the round. Amy sprained her ankle early on, but was still a more useful team member than Brianna. Like netball, the player with the ball couldn't run (pay more attention to the rules, Lydia!) so if one person had the ball (ie. Stephanie) the other players (ie. Brianna) had to run to a spot to where she could throw it. In every one of her matches Brianna just stood there, within earshot but not arm's reach of the rest of Yaxhá on the sidelines hurling abuse and instructions at her. Danni scored three goals in a starring role for Nakúm, and was rewarded with possession of the immunity idol and an interestingly enthusiastic and drawn-out keen hug from Blake. Hmm, watch this space on that one!

Poor Stephanie now finds herself in the depressing Groundhog Day of being on a team of losers where one of the strongest tribemates has a twisted ankle and one of the prettiest doesn't lift a finger in challenges. Unlike Jeff and Kim from Palau, however, Brianna was voted out and Amy has passionately vowed to stay despite her injury.

One of the themes at Tribal Council was the need for athleticism in this game, but Jeff made a potentially auspicious comment to Yaxhá: "Your strategy seems clear; keep the strong and vote out the weak. But in a game this unpredictable, voting based solely on physical strength can be risky. See how it plays out." Apparently the Maya built astronomical calendars of astonishing accuracy and mastered mathematics, so I can't wait to see what the challenges are over the coming weeks…