Hot pepper festival heats up Tinian

The island community of Tinian ramped up the blistering summer heat with the eighth staging of the increasingly popular annual Tinian Hot Pepper Festival on Feb. 18 and 19.

Tinian’s Tachogna Beach was ground zero for both residents and visitors alike who all descended on the beach to take part in the celebration of the island’s spiciest trademark, the donni sali.

Tinian Mayor Ramon M. Dela Cruz led this year’s festivities that saw not just Chinese and Japanese tourists but also sightseers from Saipan, Rota, and Guam checking out the weekend’s parade of zesty chow, great live entertainment, fun games and other exciting activities.

Other government officials, including acting governor Eloy S. Inos and CNMI Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan (Ind-MP) also made their way to Tinian to grace the 2012 celebration which, save for some power outages that caused program glitches, was a roaring success.

Making its debut this year was the Pika Festival Fun Bike Ride, which had some 60 biking aficionados from Tinian and Saipan hitting the road and trails to check out what Tinian has to offer. These bikers arrived on island via the charter boat ride of Stars and Stripes and began their cruise at about 10:30am.

An hour later, some 20 members of the Marianas Sailing Club arrived on their three 25-footer sailboats after a six-and-a-half-hour voyage. The group held a free sailing clinic for the public in conjunction with the festival.

Among the featured presentations at the festival were the Tinian High School JROTC, Tinian Elementary School students, Tao Tao Taga Cultural Dance group, stand-up comedy acts, Hapi D’ Clown, and Tinian High School students.

The annual festival also featured 19 booths selling thirst-quenching beverages and popular island dishes such as chicken kelaguen, fajitas, barbecue chicken and spare ribs, fried spring rolls, among others.

Sixteen competing booths were judged on Saturday morning for the best decorated booth contest on based on the use of natural resources and recycled materials, degree of exerted effort for the design, and the overall attractiveness. The winners were E&L booth, first place, $100; Neng Snack Mobile, second place, $75; and Sanchez Pastries, third place, $50.

There were also informational booths, including the Northern Marianas College and the NMC-Cooperative Research Extension and Education Services.

Both NMC-CREES and the Cattlemen’s Association of Tinian sponsored catch-an-animal contests that gave away chickens, pigeons, and piglets to children who snagged the animals inside the livestock octagon set up at the festival grounds.

Other contests were several hermit crab races won by Osi Reyes and Joseph Cing, first place at $30 each; Posh Evangelista and Pano Reyes, second place at $20 each; and Christopher Hofschneider and Ezra Dela Cruz at $10 each. Winners for the third set received items donated by Joeten Enterprises.

The on the spot cha-cha dance contest winners were Arsene Borja and Mary Ann Aldan, first place at $70; sisters Lorenda and Doris Cruz, second place at $50; and Carmen Dela Cruz and Chona Borja, third place at $30.

For the beach volleyball tournament, winning teams were Pikalicious, first place, $150; Dinanchi, second place, $100; and Mas Pika, third place, $75.

Team DCCA remained undefeated in the Dragon Boat Race and won $200 after clocking in at 5:54. Other winners were Team JC Café, second place at 5:59 with $150; Team Tachogna, third place at 7:00 with $100; and Team NMC, fourth place at 9:00 and received $10 phone card for each member.

One of the festival’s main event was the hot pepper eating contest, which involved chewing as many donni sali as you can within 3 minutes. In the end, Corey San Nicolas bagged the grand prize of a cell phone with free one-year service from IT&E. In the female division, winners were Celina King, first place; Doriana Emul, second place; and Janice Biz, third place. Male category winners were Jay San Nicolas, first place; John Ruwath, second place; and Gerald Crisostomo, third place. First place winners each took home $150 and a cell phone from Docomo Pacific, second placers with $100 each, and third placers with $75 each. Ten-dollar phone cards from IT&E were also given away as consolation prizes.

Another important event was the Estofao Pika cooking contest that Bill Cing won for $100. Tina Atalig took home the second prize of $75 and William Aguon and Johnson Delos Santos tied for third place with $25 each. Consolation prizes of $20 phone cards from IT&E were given to non-winning contestants.

“The annual Tinian Hot Pepper Festival is really a community-based event and we’re very happy to see everyone take part in this year’s celebration,” Vida Borja of Marianas Visitors Authority-Tinian told Saipan Tribune.

Tinian Mayor Dela Cruz expressed his appreciation to all those who made the event successful, including Star Marianas, Freedom Air, and Stars and Stripes.

“For us here on Tinian, our target is to make the event better every year and we did a good job this year. Hopefully we can surpass it again next year,” he said.