Contestants Explore Curaçao In The Ultimate Race Against Time As The Competition Heats Up

Last week, Tropika Island of Treasure Curaçao bid farewell to #TeamTropical (Simphiwe Ngema and Siyasanga Mfenyana) as only four teams are left to battle it out for the shared R1 million grand prize.

This week, after a series of beach challenges, the teams got to experience a whole lot of what Curaçao has to offer as they embarked on an adventure through the country’s picturesque capital Willemstad, where they needed to race to complete four unique tasks. Only once the first task had been completed, could the teams move on to the next stage. Once all four stages were complete and the teams had returned their items of value onto their podiums, they could start working on the fifth and final stage of the game – a puzzle.

To kickstart the challenge, the teams picked one of four items out of a bag which helped pave the way their game was played. #TeamCoolRed (Nadia Jaftha and Trevor Lagerwey) picked a maraca which saw them being tasked to start with the arts and culture challenge. #TeamPeach (Kay Sibiya and Caldine Wyngaard) picked up a souvenir which saw them starting with the tourism challenge,

while #TeamMangoPeach (Siphesihle Vazi and Darren Solomon) picked up a doll having them start with the love challenge. Finally, #TeamPineapple (Ntando Duma and Siphosethu Colo) picked a compass which saw them embark on a maritime expedition first.

Each of the four teams got off to a quick start. However, after not reading a clue correctly, Team Mango Peach and Team Peach got ahead of themselves and found themselves competing in challenges that did not form part of their respective task – a mistake that meant they would not find the fourth and final trinket. Both teams needed to retrace their steps and complete the correct tasks in order to bring back the correct trinket – an error which saw them encounter a massive time delay.

After completing all four of the tasks, Team Mango Peach arrived back at the starting point first and immediately started working on their puzzle. Team Cool Red came in a few seconds later and were first to complete their puzzle scoring them four points. Team Peach subsequently arrived with their final item and started working on their puzzle but the time difference saw Team Mango Peach clinch second place scoring them three points. Team Pineapple were the fourth team to return with their final item but quickly solved their puzzle scoring them two points, while Team Peach ended the challenge with a single point added to the leader board. After one of the most intense challenges of the season so far, Team Cool Red scored themselves a second long-life charm which can be used to give them a 30-second head start should they make it to the grand finale.

The challenge proved that the game has a lot more in store for the teams than they had imagined, and next week the game gets even tougher as the teams fight harder than ever before to score as many points as possible and avoid the looming elimination.

Catch Tropika Island of Treasure Curaçao on SABC3 every Tuesday at 19h30 with the repeat every Saturday at 20h00.