Would You Eat Volcano Pizza?

Less or Fewer?

Use less for time, money, and distance, as in “My school is less than a mile from my house.” Also use less  with things that can’t be counted individually, as in “The town got less rain than usual.”

Use fewer  with things that can be counted individually, as in “Fewer kids went to camp this year.”

There’s nothing quite like sinking your teeth into a slice of piping-hot, cheesy pizza. So perhaps it’s not surprising that no less/fewer than 3 billion pizzas are sold in the U.S. every year, according to estimates. 

When you get the craving, you can have a pizza delivered, toss a frozen one in the oven, or make your own. Or if you want something a little different, you can go to Pizza Pacaya in Guatemala. The restaurant’s pizza isn’t cooked in an oven. It’s cooked on an active volcano!

Pacaya volcano towers some 8,300 feet above sea level. It frequently belches out ash and oozes streams of lava. Large eruptions are rarer—they occur less/fewer than once a decade, on average. Accompanied by a guide, visitors are welcome to explore Pacaya’s many wonders. Now, they can feast on pizza while they’re at it, thanks to chef Mario David García Mansilla. 

Wearing protective clothing, García Mansilla uses heat from Pacaya’s slowly flowing lava to bake his pizzas. The pies are often ready in less/fewer than 10 minutes—no surprise given that they’re cooked on rocks that can reach 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit!

Ready to try volcano pizza? At about 300 quetzales, your guided hike to García Mansilla’s table will cost less/fewer than $40. You’ll also need $35–$55 for the pizza.

You might expect Pizza Pacaya to offer less/fewer topping choices than a regular pizzeria, but in fact, it offers everything from onions, peppers, and olives to salami and chorizo. García Mansilla hauls the ingredients and equipment up the volcano himself. 

So what does volcano pizza taste like? “You can’t describe it,” says García Mansilla. “You have to taste it.” Yes, please!