Tourists get a pizza volcano - 19th May 2021

This is the Pacaya volcano, near Guatemala City. It's very hot. Hot lava is coming out of the volcano. Now, the lava is close to local farms.

David Garcia is an accountant. Now, he has another job too. He's a pizza chef. He cooks pizza on the volcano.

David Garcia: "I put the pizza together one day, I brought it to the volcano and I put it in a hot cave that was approximately 800 degrees and it came out in 14 minutes. So when I tasted the flavour of the pizza cooked with the volcanic heat, I said, 'This is a good idea. I can start offering a new tourist attraction here in the volcano that is unique'."

Garcia's new job is dangerous. The air is full of dangerous ash from Pacaya. The ash looks like clouds. In March, winds took the ash clouds to Guatemala City

Now, tourists can visit the volcano. Garcia cooks them pizza. He wears special clothes for safety. He uses special cooking pans too.

David Garcia: "But in a river [of lava] I have to make sure that the pizza doesn't drift away, that it doesn't have a high temperature, so it was difficult for me to learn the technique here so as not to take out the burnt pizza. And it is also a risk to be on the shore because it is at a high temperature of 1,500 - 2,000 degrees, so I have to watch the wind direction so it doesn't affect me."

Garcia is famous on the internet. Many tourists want to eat his volcano pizza. Garcia has a lot of hungry customers.