Debbie Cloyed and Bianca Smith
The Amazing Race's Debbie and Bianca
With their command of Spanish and vast experience in traveling, longtime friends Debbie Cloyed, 25, a photographer, and Bianca Smith, 26, a teacher, were regarded as the team to beat by their fellow competitors after coming in first on the initial leg of the race in Peru. However, after the cross-country pals (Debbie lives in Los Angeles, Bianca in Washington, D.C.) got a bad map and misinformation from their hotel concierge in Santiago, Chile, they missed the turn for Puerto Vieja, Argentina, and headed to the Chilean coast instead. Their five-hour delay ultimately led them to last place in The Amazing Race. Debbie and Bianca spoke to PEOPLE about their lifelong friendship and how they hope their love of travel will bring them back to TV.

Debbie, how did you survive eating 4 lbs. of meat in the meat-eating challenge?
Debbie: Yeah, I can eat, that's for sure! Honestly, we had such sheer determination, I would have done any challenge, no problem.

In the end, you seemed more disappointed that there were no more all-female teams remaining than that you were eliminated.
Debbie: That was important to both of us that we could show that women could be absolutely equal. But I think in the end we did show that. We played with dignity, we were strong.

How did you guys stay so calm? It didn't seem like much upset you.
Debbie: For some people, this may be the adventure of their lives, but for us it's another adventure and we are going to continue that adventure. We have traveled and lived all over the world together – 30 countries between the two of us.

What did you enjoy most out of this experience?
Bianca: The fact that we were able to travel together once again.
Debbie: This is another thing we are going to laugh about when we are little 80-year-old women! We have a lot of plans to travel. Bianca is going to Australia this summer, then we are going to volunteer in Africa and then we are moving to Buenos Aires. We were rushing through the countries but we knew we were going to come back to the places we loved.

Is it strange watching yourself on television?
Bianca: I have these moments where I laugh out loud because Debbie and I have been best friends for 20 years. When we were little girls, we would dream of opportunities like this.
Debbie: They did a good job of capturing our spirit, our friendship and our determination. It reflects that we are passionate and strong and that we are always looking to the future and enjoying the ride.
Debbie: We are just very proud of the way that we played. My favorite part of the show was Rob's compliment to me – "That chick is tough. She has balls to yell at me." That's hilarious.

What are you doing now?
Debbie: Bianca is going to do her Ph.D., I have a novel to publish, a photography book and an independent film. We're also pitching a show.

What's the show?
Bianca: A travel show to show people that ...
Debbie: ...we all really have the same history as the human race and we could do so much better to know each other and to know where we are coming from.
Bianca: Life is too short to be scared and life is too short to be boring, so get out there and travel!