2023-06-20 01:16:23
Mangroves, jungle, islets, caves, mosquitoes, high temperatures, tropical storms and a muddy camp. This is what the contestants of ‘El conquistador’ face, the new extreme survival contest on RTVE, which makes the national leap after 19 seasons on EiTB, the Basque regional television. It will be broadcast from September, so the contestants of this program, as this newspaper has been able to verify ‘in situ’, are already involved in the adventure in the Los Haitises Natural Park, in the Dominican Republic.
An idyllic environment in which the 33 chosen participants will have to overcome all kinds of tests, where not only the physical qualities of each contestant are important, but also the mental aspect will be essential, the strategy that each one follows to overcome the challenges that they will have to face. perform, for a month, seven days a week. All this in a wild environment and under radically high temperatures.
That is why one of the mottos of the presenters of this edition, Julian Iantzi and Raquel Sánchez Silva, is that “when the body cannot, the mind can pull the body, but the body cannot pull the mind”. That is to say, the objective is to put the contestants to the “limit”, both physically and mentally, and teach them that “when you are screwed you have to bring out the conqueror that you have inside”. All through extreme tests that are only recorded once, without prior preparation, and among which are some “practically impossible” to overcome and games in which coordination and teamwork are essential during the first part of the contest.
Julián Iantzi and Raquel Sánchez Silva, the presenters of ‘El conquistador’, during the recordings in the Dominican Republic. CR
As the producers of the program relate, “the strong one who does not go with his head does not win.” For this they are divided into three teams: red, green and blue. While the first of them is made up of “supermen” and the second by “superwomen”, the blue team includes those participants who stand out for qualities other than physical. Everything to win the “conquis flag” in each of the tests and be able to sleep and access the best of the three possible camps. Or, to put it another way, for not being in the extreme camp, known as “hell”, located in a quagmire and where you are accompanied by all kinds of fauna from the jungle area and without any food.
That is the main, but not the least punishment faced by contestants who fail to pass the daily test. Being in it only depends on them, so perhaps it is the desire to get out of this area that motivates them to pass the next test. And the power to eat. Because whoever wins has the reward of spending the night in the rich camp, with beds and some other comforts. For the rest there is the poor camp, located on a plain in Los Haitises. All hand in hand with the three captains of each team: Joana Pastrana, Patxi Salinas and Cesc Escolà, who immerse themselves in the adventure with their teams, which only becomes an individual challenge in the last part of survival.
Hardness of tests
That is why teamwork and camaraderie play a fundamental role in an adventure in which the harshness of the tests and, according to its producers, “in the reality of the format” is the reason why the program hooks. A survival experience that has become a “social phenomenon” in the Basque Country and that now intends to achieve the same at a national level with a recording in which 250 technicians participate. In addition, the tests are tested by the climber Eric López, who analyzes and evaluates both their level of hardness and danger.
One of the novelties of their landing on La 1 is that they will no longer only be Basque contestants, but they did the ‘casting’ at a national level, although they confess that the secondary thing has been the origin of the participants. A series of questions, physical tests and even interviews with psychologists are the bases that the contestants of this ‘reality’ must pass. But “there is something that hooks them.” And it is that the producers say that, despite how hard they live, many of those who go through the tests do not want to leave, or even want to repeat.
Although who is being eliminated is decided in the assembly, located on the conch island, where the contestants are nominated and they are told who should leave the program at any given time. But that is where the strategy of each contestant is also valued. And it is that it is important to know who to help or not to help, and even when to win or let them win. And that is strategy, not physical force. Although for the final test both qualities are essential due to the hardness that this challenge presents.
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