Survivor: Guatemala (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Survivor: Guatemala - The Maya Empire (temporarily changed pre-show to "The Mayan Empire" and then back to "The Maya Empire"; season also known as Survivor: Guatemala for short) is the eleventh season of Survivor, and it is set inside of the ruins of the Maya civilization. Specifically, the series is in Yaxhá-Nakum-Naranjo National Park near the more popular Tikal National Park, located in northern Guatemala. A preview of the show's location was shown during the finale of Survivor: Palau. The season premiered on September 15, 2005 on CBS. The finale was on Sunday, December 11, 2005 on CBS. Danni Boatwright won the million dollars as sole survivor. This season also features the return of Palau contestants Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard.

In this season, the second of the early stages of the future Exile Island was completed. After the merge, production placed a tiny immunity idol in the Xhakum tribe. Gary Hogeboom found it up in a tree, protecting him for that Tribal Council. Unlike future seasons, this idol could only be used before the vote instead of after, and once it was exposed, it wouldn't be used anymore. However, it could be used until the Final 4.

This season is been talked about as one of the toughest seasons for a group of castaways. According to Jeff Probst, temperatures appeared to be well over 110 degrees with high humidity, as he talked about it during some of the competitions. Challenges like the 11-mile hike through the jungle and Mayan basketball showed how exhausted all the castaways were. In Day 1, many of the Nakúm men all were sick after the hike, and had a tough time recovering.

The tribes were Yaxhá (wearing blue) and Nakúm (wearing yellow). The ten members merged into the Xhakúm tribe (wearing red) marking the 3rd time that all names in previous tribe were blended into one.

The contestants arrived on June 22nd and began filming on June 27th. Filming ended on August 4th and contestants returned home August 5th. (Source from Survivor Fever)

Contestants

18 contestants took part in this Survivor series. Two, Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard, are returning contestants from Survivor: Palau, while the remainder are new.

Contestant	Original Tribe	Episode 4 Tribe	Merged Tribe	Finish	Total votes
Jim Lynch 63, Northglenn, CO	Nakum			1st Voted Out Day 3	8
Morgan McDevitt 21, Decatur, IL	Yaxha			2nd Voted Out Day 6	8
Brianna Varela 21, Edmonds, WA	Yaxha			3rd Voted Out Day 8	7
Brooke Struck 26, Hood River, OR	Nakum	Nakum		4th Voted Out Day 11	5
Blake Towsley 24, Dallas, TX	Nakum	Yaxha		5th Voted Out Day 14	5
Margaret Bobonich 43, Chardon, OH	Nakum	Nakum		6th Voted Out Day 15	7
Brian Corridan 22, New York, NY	Yaxha	Yaxha		7th Voted Out Day 15	7
Amy O'Hara 39, Revere, MA	Yaxha	Yaxha		8th Voted Out Day 18	4
Brandon Bellinger 22, Manhattan, KS	Nakum	Yaxha	Xhakum	9th Voted Out Day 21	6
Bobby Jon Drinkard 27, Troy, AL	Nakum	Yaxha		10th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	8
Jamie Newton 24, North Hollywood, CA	Yaxha	Nakum		11th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	10
Gary Hogeboom 46, Grand Haven, MI	Yaxha	Yaxha		12th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	8
Judd Sergeant 34, Ridgefield, NJ	Nakum	Nakum		13th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	5
Cindy Hall 31, Naples, FL	Nakum	Nakum		14th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36	6
Lydia Morales 42, Lakewood, WA	Yaxha	Nakum		15th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37	10
Rafe Judkins 22, Providence, RI	Yaxha	Nakum		16th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	2
Stephenie LaGrossa 25, Philadelphia, PA	Yaxha	Nakum		Runner-Up	2
Danni Boatwright 30, Tonganoxie, KS	Nakum	Yaxha		Sole Survivor	1

The game

		Challenges
Episode Title	Air Date	Reward	Immunity	Eliminated	Vote	Finish
Big Trek, Big Trouble, Big Surprise	2005-09-15	Nakum	Yaxha	Jim	8-1	1st Voted Out Day 3
Man Down	2005-09-22	Nakum	Nakum	Morgan	8-1	2nd Voted Out Day 6
The Brave May Not Live Long, but the Cautious Don't Live at All	2005-09-29	Nakum	Nakum	Brianna	7-1	3rd Voted Out Day 8
To Betray or Not to Betray	2005-10-06	Multiple	Yaxha	Brooke	5-3	4th Voted Out Day 11
Crocs, Cowboys and City Slickers	2005-10-13	Yaxha	Nakum	Blake	5-2	5th Voted Out Day 14
Big Ball, Big Mouth, Big Trouble	2005-10-20	Nakum	Rafe	Margaret	6-1	6th Voted Out Day 15
Big Ball, Big Mouth, Big Trouble	2005-10-20	Nakum	Rafe	Brian	5-1	7th Voted Out Day 15
Surprise Enemy Visit	2005-10-27	Yaxha	Nakum	Amy	4-1	8th Voted Out Day 18
The Hidden Immunity Idol	2005-11-03	None	Gary	Brandon	6-4	9th Voted Out Day 21
Secrets and Lies and an Idol Surprise	2005-11-10	Judd	Jamie	Bobby Jon	6-2-1	10th Voted Out Day 24
Eating and Sleeping With the Enemy	2005-11-17	Danni, Gary, Judd, Stephenie	Rafe	Jamie	6-2	11th Voted Out Day 27
Everything Is Personal	2005-11-24	Cindy	Rafe	Gary	6-1	12th Voted Out Day 30
Price for Immunity	2005-12-01	Survivor Auction	Danni	Judd	4-2	13th Voted Out Day 33
Big Win, Big Decision, Big Mistake?	2005-12-08	Cindy	Stephenie	Cindy	4-1	14th Voted Out Day 36
Thunder Storms & Sacrifice	2005-12-11	None	Rafe	Lydia	3-1	15th Voted Out Day 37
Thunder Storms & Sacrifice	2005-12-11	None	Danni	Rafe	1-0	16th Voted Out Day 38
The Reunion	2005-12-11	Jury Vote		Stephenie	6-1	Runner-Up
The Reunion	2005-12-11	Jury Vote		Danni	6-1	Sole Survivor

Tribes

Nakum: yellow buffs, living adjacent to the Mayan ruins
Yaxha: teal buffs, living in a shelter in the jungle
Xhakum: red buffs, living at Nakum camp

Elimination Notes

Jim - Although he was a good leader at first, he was eliminated after tearing a muscle in his arm, which made him detrimental to the progress of the tribe. On the morning after this episode aired, Jim appeared on the Early Show still wearing a sling.
Morgan - Lydia was the target, but she had allies in Brian and Jamie. Brian spoke up in her defense, and convinced her to do the same. Gary and Stephenie suggested that Morgan didn't pull her weight at camp, and ultimately she was eliminated.
Brianna - Brianna was eliminated for not performing well in the Mayan basketball challenge.
Brooke - Brooke was eliminated for being the weakest link of the members of Nakum who had not swapped tribes. The team had 4 Nakum and 4 Yaxha, and the 4 Yaxha members managed to form an alliance with Judd, thus eliminating Brooke.
Blake - Blake was voted off to improve team unity, and because he annoyed the other tribe members by continually talking about himself. Brian was able to successfully lead Blake into telling stories about himself that alienated Danni and Bobby Jon from him, and the two of them voted with the three original Yaxha to get rid of Blake.
Margaret - Margaret was voted out in a 6-1 vote due to her being on the outside of Nakum's majority alliance and due to her personality conflicts with Judd.
Brian - Brian was one of the more physically weak Yaxha members, and was seen as being too smart (being an Ivy League student) to keep in the game. Brian devised an elaborate plan to split the votes of the former Nakum and vote out Bobby Jon, but Amy regarded it as " too complicated " and she and Gary helped vote him out.
Amy - Although Yaxha did not want to vote anyone out, they lost the immunity challenge, and Amy was seen as the weakest.
Brandon - The tribes merged, and Brandon was both in the minority alliance as well as a challenge threat. He was voted out 6-4. He also was voted off because of Bobby Jon's appeal to Stephenie to keep him around long enough to make the jury this time around. She honored his request and pushed for her alliance to take out Brandon.
Bobby Jon - Because Gary had picked up the individual immunity idol, the power core was forced to shift gears. Bobby Jon was considered more threatening physically than Danni and thus voted out 6-2-1.
Jamie - Jamie was very cocky after the merge. Although he calmed down, he was still a major physical threat and increasingly paranoid and spreading lies among his alliance. Rafe came up with the idea to vote him out because Jamie repeatedly approached him about their alliance and Rafe couldn't deal with him anymore.
Gary - Gary was not in the five person alliance, and was one of the strongest competitors remaining. Though Gary exposed Judd's lie about the hidden immunity idol, it wasn't enough and he was the next to go.
Judd - Danni was able to break up the four person alliance by raising doubts with Rafe and Stephenie about Judd's trustworthiness.
Cindy - Cindy alienated Rafe and Danni when deciding to keep the car she won for herself instead of giving everybody one through an offer from Jeff at the reward challenge. Stephenie also apparently decided to vote for Cindy, even after previously stating she didn't want to betray another alliance member, and Cindy became the first female juror and the 10th victim of the Survivor "car curse".
Lydia - Lydia was voted off because Stephenie, Rafe and Danni felt she was well-liked by the jury and could possibly win, so she was voted out.
Rafe - After Danni won immunity, Rafe said their deal was done and to vote with her heart. Danni felt she could most likely win against Stephenie so she voted her close friend, Rafe out of the game.
Stephenie - Danni decided to take Steph to the final two instead of Rafe, knowing she could beat her. Steph lost because she had already played the game before and because she had backstabbed many of her alliance members while playing this time. Her sole jury vote came from Rafe, the one person in her alliance she did not have a hand in voting out.
Danni - Danni fought back from a minority alliance and became the Sole Survivor without backstabbing anyone. Danni got votes from 6 of the 7 jurors: Bobby Jon, Jamie, Gary, Judd, Cindy, and Lydia all voted for Danni to win the million dollars.

Voting History

Here is a chart showing who voted for who at each tribal council.

	Starting Tribes			Mixed Tribes				Merged Tribe
Episode:	Episode 1:	Episode 2:	Episode 3:	Episode 4:	Episode 5:	Episode 6:	Episode 7:	Episode 8:	Episode 9:	Episode 10:	Episode 11:	Episode 12:	Episode 13:	Episode 14:		Runner-up:	Sole Survivor:
Eliminated:	Jim 8/9 votes	Morgan 8/9 votes	Brianna 7/8 votes	Brooke 5/8 votes	Blake 5/7 votes	Margaret 6/7 votes	Amy 4/5 votes	Brandon 6/10 votes	Bobby Jon 6/9 votes	Jamie 6/8 votes	Gary 6/7 votes	Judd 4/6 votes	Cindy 4/5 votes	Lydia 3/4 votes	Rafe 1 vote	Stephenie 1/7 votes	Danni 6/7 votes
Eliminated:	Jim 8/9 votes	Morgan 8/9 votes	Brianna 7/8 votes	Brooke 5/8 votes	Blake 5/7 votes	Brian 5/6 votes	Amy 4/5 votes	Brandon 6/10 votes	Bobby Jon 6/9 votes	Jamie 6/8 votes	Gary 6/7 votes	Judd 4/6 votes	Cindy 4/5 votes	Lydia 3/4 votes	Rafe 1 vote	Stephenie 1/7 votes	Danni 6/7 votes
Voter	Vote
Danni	Jim				Blake	Brian	Amy	Jamie	Stephenie	Jamie	Gary	Judd	Cindy	Lydia	Rafe	Jury Vote
Stephenie		Morgan	Brianna	Brooke		Margaret		Brandon	Bobby-Jon	Jamie	Gary	Judd	Cindy	Lydia		Jury Vote
Rafe		Morgan	Brianna	Brooke		Margaret		Brandon	Bobby Jon	Jamie	Gary	Judd	Cindy	Lydia		Stephenie
Lydia		Morgan	Brianna	Brooke		Margaret		Brandon	Bobby Jon	Jamie	Gary	Judd	Cindy	Danni			Danni
Cindy	Jim			Lydia		Margaret		Brandon	Bobby Jon	Jamie	Gary	Lydia	Rafe				Danni
Judd	Jim			Brooke		Margaret		Brandon	Bobby Jon	Gary	Gary	Lydia					Danni
Gary		Morgan	Brianna		Blake	Brian	Amy	Jamie	Cindy	Jamie	Cindy						Danni
Jamie		Morgan	Brianna	Brooke		Margaret		Brandon	Bobby Jon	Gary							Danni
Bobby Jon	Jim				Blake	Brian	Amy	Jamie	Stephenie								Danni
Brandon	Jim				Brian	Brian	Amy	Jamie
Amy		Morgan	Brianna		Blake	Brian	Bobby-Jon
Brian		Morgan	Brianna		Blake	Bobby-Jon
Margaret	Jim			Lydia		Judd
Blake	Jim				Brian
Brooke	Jim			Lydia
Brianna		Morgan	Lydia
Morgan		Lydia
Jim	Margaret

Survivor: Guatemala