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Five teams have been set the challenge to travel from the top to the bottom of Latin America - leaving behind smartphones, internet access and credit cards and armed with only the cash equivalent of a one-way airfare from Mexico City to Ushuaia.

The race to Ushuaia is underway and the five teams head out of Copan Ruinas in Western Honduras to their next checkpoint – Panama City. A journey that will see them travel across vast swathes of Central America, passing through Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

Despite a seemingly short distance to travel, navigating roads that share their terrain with more than three hundred volcanoes can be breath-taking but time consuming. Add in unreliable bus schedules and extreme heat, the journeys for the teams can be challenging.

Mother and son Jo and Sam, currently race leaders, are the first to set off to Panama City. Having raced hard in the previous leg, they’re keen to experience more this time round. Working at a hostel in El Salvador offers some respite from the race, and gives the pair the chance to help with a turtle conservation project - where they collect and hatch turtle eggs before releasing them to the sea. Watching this process first-hand evokes some strong maternal instincts in Jo and prompts her to reflect on her relationship with Sam.

Brother and sister Dom and Lizzie opt for a strategy of back to back buses all the way to Costa Rica, in a bid to claw back some time on the front runners. But things don’t get off to a good start, with Lizzie feeling that her older brother dominates all the decisions, leading to a major confrontation between the two. Can they rekindle the close relationship they had in their youth and move forward in the race? A homestay with the Bri Bri, an indigenous tribe who place great value on family, gives them both pause for thought.

Leaving the checkpoint minutes apart – rival couples Jen and Rob and Michael and Shuntelle. Much to Jen’s frustration both teams choose the same route out of the checkpoint and end up on the same bus to Santa Rosa de Copan. When Michael and Shuntelle manage to give Jen and Rob the slip, things appear to be looking up for the couple, but a serious money mishap stops them in their tracks and threatens their position in the race.

Married couple Jen and Rob want to reconnect and have fun after a tough few years. Having never even owned a backpack prior to setting off from Mexico City, Jen is struggling to find the right balance between race and experience, a trip to the cloud forest in Costa Rica provides some much needed perspective for the two of them.

Recently reunited uncle and nephew Emon and Jamiul are 33 hours behind the race leaders, but determined to claw back time. However, the pair spent heavily in the first leg and the realisation that they’ve lost their world map puts them on the back foot straight away. As the team that know each other the least, can they overcome their difficulties and learn to open up to each other and start thinking smarter as a team?