Morning. Waking and stretching occurs. Teeth are brushed. Aaron declares that he and Arianne are "ready to go kick ass." She prepares for the day with her hair poofed out to next week and wrapped in a red bandanna. Wow, Zach has his hair almost exactly the same way. Including the bandanna. They could be twins. Ken and Gerard, meanwhile, say that because they were stuck in the "loser group" on the last bus, they decided to go for the Fast Forward. Phil explains that a Fast Forward lets you skip the rest of the leg and go right to the end, but it's only good for the first team that finds it. As usual, he has the able assistance of Exposition Hands. They look like they've been well. They could maybe use a little lotion. Phil points out that a team can only get one FF in the entire race, so they have to figure out "when it's most advantageous to go for it." I was originally going to say I wanted to be in a band called Advantageous To Go For It, but now I'm thinking maybe just Advantageous To Go. It would sound like a combination of the Fast Forward and fast food. I would play the drums and trash the hotel rooms. At any rate, the Fast Forward this week requires teams to go to Santo Domingo Plaza, to an area of what Phil calls "street typists and printers," whose function is apparently to type and print letters on behalf of people who can't read or write. I guess that makes sense. The expression "street typists" is an interesting one. I was envisioning something more sinister. Like, "If you don't teach your children about punctuation at home in a mature and loving environment, they will learn about it from street typists." Once they find the plaza, they'll need to find the person working there who has the FF clue.

Back at the hotel, the twins are waiting, because they are also planning to go for the FF. They run into Ken and Gerard waiting out the last few minutes before they leave to find it (hours of operation start at 8:00 AM). The teams agree that whoever finds it will give a shout so that the other team won't spend another hour looking for it. An interesting decision on everyone's part. On one hand, you should obviously not help other teams avoid time loss as a general rule. On the other hand, all you really care about is getting it, because then you'll be off and you won't be last (unless you completely screw up after you win it). So you don't care that much where the other FF-seeking team winds up in the group of twelve. Meanwhile, it might be a chance to earn a little goodwill. So it seems counterintuitive, but really…why not? In an interview, Ken talks about the fact that they realized they were planning to take a taxi to the plaza, whereas Derek and Drew were planning on running there. "Wonder Twins!" Ken cries, imitating them with a low voice and an exaggerated, Hasselhoff-in-Baywatch-style slow-running motion. Gerard then imitates the twins holding a moistened finger up in the air to gauge the wind direction. "Great weath-ah for a run!", he says in his deep, comedic, macho-man voice. Hee! They're funny.