１０００度の溶岩で焼く火口のピザ、観光客に人気　グアテマラ

【サンビセンテパカヤＡＦＰ＝時事】中米グアテマラのパカヤ山では２月から噴火が続いており、地元コミュニティーや当局が警戒態勢を敷いている。しかし、会計士のダビド・ガルシアさん（３４）にとって、山腹をゆっくりと流れてくる溶岩は調理場だ。（写真はグアテマラ・サンビセンテパカヤ郡のパカヤ山で、溶岩流の上で焼かれるピザ）
　ガルシアさんは、くすぶる溶岩の上で焼いた「パカヤピザ」をふるまい、観光客や地元の人々を驚かせている。
　火口から続く岩場を調理場に変えたガルシアさんはＡＦＰに「今日は大勢の人が、火山の熱で焼いたピザを食べるという体験を楽しみに来ています」と話した。
　ガルシアさんは簡素な即席の調理台で、１０００度まで耐えられる鉄板の上にピザ生地を広げ、トマトソースを塗り、チーズと肉をたっぷりとのせる。
　そして防護服で頭から足元のミリタリーブーツまですっぽりと身を包み、溶岩にピザをのせる。
　１０分後、「焼けたぞ。あともう少しチーズを溶かそう」とガルシアさんは言った。
　ふつふつとチーズが泡立つと、観光客の一人が「とてもおいしそう！」と声を上げる。
　首都グアテマラ市から南に約２５キロの位置にあるパカヤ山は、グアテマラに三つある活火山の一つだ。ガルシアさんのキッチンは、この巨大な火山を登り、腹をすかせた観光客を引き付けるようになった。
　この数週間、パカヤ山は定期的に溶岩を噴出しており、ガルシアさんは溶岩流の上で直接ピザを焼き始めた。溶岩流の一部は多くの人が住む地域に迫り、村人たちは噴火がやむことを祈っている。
　火山灰を含んだ噴煙が上がる空の下でピザを焼くのは、危険な行為でもある。オランダから来た観光客は「溶岩の上で焼いたものを食べるなんて、考えるだけでもおかしい。でも、ここ（グアテマラ）でしか見られない」と言った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/05/13-13:42）

Guatemala's Pacaya volcano has been erupting since February, keeping local communities and authorities on high alert.
But for David Garcia, the streams of molten lava oozing down the mountainside have become his kitchen.
Garcia, a 34-year-old accountant, serves up Pacaya Pizza cooked on the smouldering volcanic rock to awed tourists and locals.
Many people today come to enjoy the experience of eating pizza made on volcanic heat, Garcia told AFP from a rocky area that leads to the Pacaya crater, and which he's converted into his workplace.
In his makeshift kitchen, Garcia spreads the dough on a metal platter that can resist temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit), slathers it with tomato sauce, a generous helping of cheese and pieces of meat.
Wearing protective clothing from head to his military style boots, Garcia places the pizza on the lava.
It's done, just let the cheese melt some more, he announces 10 minutes later.
That pizza looks so good! exclaims one of the tourists as the cheese bubbles.
Garcia's kitchen has become a magnet for tourists that work up a appetite climbing the massive volcano -- one of three active ones in Guatemala -- located just 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of the capital.
- 'Only' in Guatemala -
He first started baking pizzas on the mountain side in 2013 in small caverns he found amongst the rocks.
I didn't sell much the first few days, said Garcia, whose fame has now spread throughout social media.
In recent weeks, with Pacaya regularly spitting out molten rock, he started cooking the pizzas directly on the moving lava, some of which has come close to population centers.
It's a potentially risky undertaking given the plumes of volcanic ash blasted into the sky by the angry beast, to which some local villagers pray, pleading with it to desist.
Having a pizza cooked in the embers of a volcano is mind-blowing and unique in the whole world, said Felipe Aldana, a tourist trying out one of Garcia's specialities.
He found about about the pizza joint on Facebook and thought: I have to have this experience.
It's ridiculous just thinking that you're going to eat something cooked on lava, but it's something that you can see only here in Guatemala, said Kelt Van Meurs, a Dutch visitor.