“I'm Just Not Good at Kissing Butt”: An Interview with Survivor: Guatemala’s Cindy

In the short amount of time since viewers saw Cindy voted out, there is already a heated debate as to whether she did the right thing by keeping the car or if giving cars to the others might have helped her stick around longer. In addition to a number of other questions, Cindy weighs in here with the answer. Read on to see what she has to say.

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Cindy, and thanks for taking the time to answer these questions for RealityNewsOnline’s readers. What was it like for a person in your profession to be able to spend so much time in the wilds of Guatemala?

Cindy: It was incomparable to any opportunity that you would have at any zoological facility because we, as zookeepers, try to recreate their natural habitats as much as possible because the more natural we make it the more we can learn from the animals we have in zoos, about the ones in the wild. But to see them in their natural habitat gives you an insight that you can't get anywhere else and really deepens your appreciation for the wild.

RNO: What was your strategy coming into Survivor, and how did it change as the game progressed?

Cindy: Initially my strategy was to pay attention to people as much as possible because you can learn a lot by the way people interact with one another. To do my best, to keep my opinion to myself, which was quite a challenge for me. And to try to not appear to be as strong and as comfortable living under those circumstances as I actually was, until the end. I think I went in more as a under the radar player than originally anticipated as the game progressed. I think because I'm so quiet, people always underestimate me.

RNO: When Judd turned against you and Margaret after the tribal mix-up, did you think your goose was cooked, or had Judd at some point indicated that he planned to keep you in the new alliance?

Cindy: No, I didn’t think my goose was cooked because I seemed to get along with the new tribe better than I anticipated. And Judd as well – I knew he was on my side. I knew he would try to protect me. He gave me a sense that he was looking out for me in the very beginning.

RNO: When you came into the merge as part of the majority alliance, where did you see yourself among your allies – for example, final four, final two, etc.?

Cindy: I felt that at the beginning I probably was at the bottom of the magic 6 but knew that if given a little bit of time I could improve my position, and I did.

RNO: You were left out of the decision to vote off Judd, but if they had told you, would you have gone along with it or tried to help him turn the tide?

Cindy: I would have gone along with it – I didn’t have a problem going along with it. It was a game. We're all there to get further than somebody else. I'm not there to take my best friend to the end – I'm there to win. And if they really are my friend they will be there when the game's over. I didn’t want Stephenie to beat me – my mission from the time I was in the game was to beat her.

RNO: After watching your final episode and seeing Rafe’s comments about how he could not have voted against you if you’d given them all cars, do you think things might have turned out better for you if you had given up the car?

Cindy: No I don’t because at that point they saw me as a physical threat, which wouldn’t have changed if they had cars or not. If nothing else it would have put me in a greater position of power which again would have doubled my threat because Danni and Lydia still would have wanted to get rid of me.

RNO: Why do you think you were unable to persuade Stephenie to stay on your side?

Cindy: Because Rafe is the ring leader, Stephenie is the messenger and she knows in order to get further in the game, she has to go with the majority. Rafe had a alliance with Danni so that creates a majority vote. And Lydia is right there with them.

RNO: Do you agree with Rafe’s assertion that you could have beaten either him or Stephenie if you made it to the final two?

Cindy: Yes I totally agree with that because he said it last night – I had not betrayed a single person in the game, so no one on the jury had a reason not to vote for me. Gary had some sort thing against me but compared to Rafe or Stephanie I still think he might have voted for me and picked the lesser of the two evils.

RNO: If you could go back and do it over, what would you do differently?

Cindy: If I had complete control I would have won that immunity. I was close but didn’t get there in time. Because I think that would have ultimately affected the outcome of the game. If I had immunity I think I would have made the final two. Or maybe to try to sweet talk Danni and Lydia into voting out Stephenie because obviously Danni's not voting for Rafe, but I could have gotten rid of Stephenie. I'm just not good at kissing butt – it would have been to hard to do that. Especially when I knew they had a thing against me and had been trying to get rid of me for weeks.

RNO: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

Cindy: I just want people to understand how real it becomes so quickly. When I was there, I was only there for 36 days but I had already disconnected from life before that and the things that were important to me. And completely accepted this as my new life – my new way of life and my new social circle. It was like my real life was a distant memory – a fond memory, but a memory I was able to let go of.

RNO: Thanks again, Cindy!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other Survivor: Guatemala Episode 13 articles:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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