Survivor: Guatemala - The Mayan Empire (also known as Survivor: Guatemala) was the eleventh season of the American reality show Survivor, and was set inside of the ruins of the Maya civilization. The show was filmed in Yaxhá-Nakúm-Naranjo National Park near the more popular Tikal National Park, in northern Guatemala. The season started being shown on TV on September 15, 2005 on CBS. The finale (last episode) was on Sunday, December 11, 2005 on CBS. Danni Boatwright won this season. She won against Stephenie LaGrossa in a 6-1 vote.

Applications had to be given on January 14, 2005. Around March 2005, 800 people were chosen for an interview by CBS. Out of these 800, 48 people were chosen to go in Los Angeles sometime around April 2005. From these 48, 16 were chosen to be in the game this season, which was filmed from June to August 2005. Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard from Survivor: Palau also returned this season. LaGrossa also returned once again in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Her place is unknown because the season has not been shown on TV yet.

Host Jeff Probst says that temperatures seemed to be over  with a lot of humidity. He talked about it during some of the challenges. Challenges like the  walk through the jungle and "Mayan basketball" showed how tired all the players were. In Day 1, many of the Nakúm men were sick after the walk, and had a hard time getting better.

After the tribes were merged (combined), production put a small Immunity Idol in the Xhakúm tribe. Gary Hogeboom found it up in a tree, saving him from being voted off at that Tribal Council. Unlike later seasons, this Idol could only be used before the vote instead of after, and once it was used, it wouldn't be used anymore. However, it could be used until the Final Four.

The tribes were Yaxhá (blue buffs, living in a shelter in the jungle) and Nakúm (yellow buffs, living near the Mayan ruins). Both of these tribes were named after two old Mayan cities. When there were 10 people left, the tribes merged one tribe, which the players named "Xhakúm" (red buffs, at Nakúm's old camp), named by blending the names "Yaxhá" and "Nakúm".

Tina Scheer, a player on Survivor: Panama, was supposed to be on the show this season, but her son had been killed in a car accident and she backed out.

The players came on June 22 and began filming on June 27. Filming ended on August 4 and players returned home August 5. (Source from Survivor Fever )

Players

The Total Votes is the number of votes a player got during Tribal Councils where the player is able to be voted out of the game. It does not count the votes they got during the final Tribal Council.

The game

In the case of multiple tribes or castaways who win reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically where it was a team effort; where one castaway won and invited others, the invitees are in brackets.

 There was no reward challenge due to tribal switch.

 There was no Reward Challenge due to tribal merge.

Episode summaries
Episode 1: The sixteen new players learned upon arriving in the Guatemalan jungle that Bobby Jon Drinkard and Stephenie LaGrossa from Survivor: Palau were returning. They were also told that their first reward challenge would be an  walk to a campsite near some Mayan ruins. Nakúm won, and Yaxhá was told to find a new campsite. Yaxhá won the first Immunity Challenge, and because of his illness and injuries he got during the challenges, Jim was voted out of Nakúm (8-1).

Episode 2: Before the Reward Challenge, Blake had cramps and hyperventilation. Nakúm won fishing gear as their reward, and later won Immunity as well. Morgan was voted out because her tribe thought she was weak and lazy (8-1).

Episode 3: At the Reward Challenge, Nakúm won pillows, blankets and a tarp before going on to win their fourth challenge in a row, the Immunity Challenge. At Tribal Council, Brianna of Yaxhá was voted out because her tribe thought she was weak (7-1).

Episode 4: At the Reward Challenge, the tribes were switched; Brooke, Cindy, Judd, Margaret, Lydia, Stephenie, Rafe and Jamie were the new Nakúm and Amy, Brian, Gary, Danni, Brandon, Blake and Bobby Jon were the new Yaxhá. After the new Yaxhá tribe won the Immunity Challenge, Judd make his original Nakúm teammates upset and helped to vote Brooke out (5-3).

Episode 5: At the Reward Challenge, Yaxhá won chips, drinks and a crocodile-proof swimming cage. Nakúm won immunity and Blake was voted out for being selfish, (5-2).

Episode 6: Nakúm won their second challenge in a row, and both tribes would be going Tribal Council. As part of their reward, Nakúm had an individual Immunity Challenge, which was won by Rafe. He was also able to watch part of the Yaxhá tribal council. Margaret, due to personality problems, was voted out of Nakúm (6-1), and Yaxhá voted out Brian (5-1), because they thought they could not trust him.

Episode 7: Yaxhá won the reward of a jungle canopy zipline ride, then invited Nakúm to camp for Danni's birthday. They swam together in the crocodile-proof cage. Nakúm won the Immunity Challenge, and with Amy still having an ankle injury that she got days ago, Yaxhá thought it was best to vote her out (4-1). After the vote, the four Yaxhá members left moved to the Nakúm camp for the tribal merge.

Episode 8: It was told that there was a Hidden Immunity Idol located near the camp of the new Xhakúm tribe (the old Nakúm camp). The tribes merged (combined) into one tribe and named the new tribe "Xhakúm". At the Challenge, Jeff said that it would be both for Reward and Immunity. However, only those who didn't think they needed immunity would go to the food reward while the others played for immunity. Gary ended up winning the individual immunity, saving himself because the old Nakúm members (Stephenie, Jamie, Judd, Rafe, Lydia and Cindy) wanted to vote off Gary. With Gary safe from being voted off, they thought about voting off Bobby Jon, but Stephenie told her allies to keep him in the game, allowing him to at least make the Jury. Instead, Brandon, likely the strongest player of the old Yaxhá members, was voted off (6-4).

Episode 9: Gary found the Hidden Immunity Idol. Judd won reward (shared with Bobby Jon and Stephenie), and Jamie won immunity. Gary, whom Nakúm wanted gone, surprised the tribe with the Hidden Immunity Idol at Tribal Council. With Gary safe from the vote once again, Bobby Jon was voted out instead (6-2-1) and became the first member of the Jury. He lasted three days longer than he did on Survivor: Palau.

Episode 10: At the very messy reward challenge, the team of Danni, Gary, Stephenie and Judd won a night away from camp and videos from home. After Rafe won Immunity, Jamie became worried about being voted out; they actually didn't want to vote him out that night, but him being too worried annoyed everyone else. They made his worst nightmare come true, voting him out (6-2).

Episode 11: Cindy won the reward challenge, and took Rafe with her on a reward of a feast, waterfall pool and massage. Rafe won Immunity again, and at Tribal Council, the old Nakúm tribe finally got to vote off Gary (6-1).

Episode 12: The final six's loved ones came to the camp after the Survivor Auction. Danni won an Immunity Challenge advantage, and Judd's wife, Cindy's twin sister and Stephenie's boyfriend were allowed to stay overnight at camp. As a result of her advantage, Danni won the Immunity Challenge. Safe with immunity, Danni also was able to turn the game around for herself by convincing Stephenie, Rafe and Lydia that Judd could not be trusted and was too much of a threat to keep around. In a (4-2) vote, Judd was sent packing, but not before he said some last words to the players left, quote "Bye, guys. Hope you get eaten by a freakin' crocodile. Scumbags."

Episode 13: After winning the Reward Challenge, Cindy was given the choice of keeping her newly won 2006 Pontiac Torrent or giving one to each of the other players left. Cindy chose to keep the car, a decision which made Rafe made. After Stephenie won Immunity, Rafe was able to get Cindy voted out (4-1).

Episode 14: In the final four, Rafe won his fourth individual immunity, and Lydia was voted out for being liked by the jury (3-1). After a two-hour, 38 minute challenge, Danni won the last immunity challenge. She chose to vote out Rafe, because she thought she would have a better chance at winning the game against Stephenie. (1-0). At the live reunion and finale (last episode), Danni beat Stephenie in a (6-1) vote. Stephenie had lasted 9 days longer than she did on Survivor: Palau.

Voting history

Other websites
 Official CBS Survivor Guatemala Website

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