I`m not exactly sure how, but a few days ago I made my "debut" on one of the radio stations in Xela. It appears that my trip to the crater of Santiaguito is something that people around Xela find quite exciting - everyone that I have spoken to either wants to go, has complete respect for my adventure or thinks I´m completely crazy. Anyhow, one of my compañeros from the trip, Steve, sent me an message saying that someone his Spanish teacher knows has a sports show on the radio and that they wanted to interview us. I was minded to go as long as I`d finished my work for Don Eduardo - I`m helping with publicity etc at the moment for his company Kaqchikel tours.
The day of the interview...
I´m sitting in Don Eduardo´s office, minding my own business and getting on with my work when in comes Steve. He wants to speak with Eduardo about the radio interview when he spots me. He seems awfully keen that I go to the interview - something about it being good to have someone to speak for the half hour that we have to fill. Afterwards, he starts to ask Eduardo if it is ok to mention the name of his agency and if there is anything we shouldn´t say on air. Eduardo gets all animated and says that under no circumstances should we mention that he took us to the actual crater of Santiaguito - apparently it is not permitted to go to the crater because of some decree that the Municipalidad have issued. I assure him that we will do nothing of the sort and head off to the interview.
As we arrive for the interview the general lack of organisation and prepping seems fairly standard for Guatemala. In fact, the preparation for the interview is non-existent. The interviewer gets us to write down our names and starts to talk about the programme. I get somewhat disconcerted when he introduces us "professional alpinistas" but I guess it´s all part of building up the drama. As I turn towards Steve and Jesse, I notice a lot of gesticulating at the interviewer suggesting that he should shove the microphone in front of me when he wants to ask any questions. Hmmm... I´m slightly startled by the lack of focus of the first question - "what do you want to say about the trip to the Crater?". I´m secretly thinking that i should answer with "well, what do you want to ask me?" but instead politely start talking about how the trip was an extreme adventure, a very tough trek even for a professional alpinista like me (well, you`ve got to live up to expectations), it´s like being on the moon etc.
After a few minutes of recounting the trip he asks me a couple more questions which i manage to answer without too much drama. Things start to decline somewhat when he starts to ask some questions to my compañeros. I start to understand why Steve was so keen to have me there. Of the numerous debacles that occur as they start/attempt to answer questions is when the subject changes to their 3 day hike to Lake Atitlan. Steve asks the guy to give me the microphone - unfortunately, I have to say that I didn´t go on the trip so have no idea what it was like...after a "timely" commercial break the microphone seems to be permanently placed in front of me and the subject randomly turns to European football.
"So Amil, like all people from England, i´m guessing you´re a Manchester United fan."
"Ummm. Not exactly but I hear that they are doing very well at the moment and won today in the Champions League".
We continue with a bit of football chat, talk about how long I´ve been in Xela and learning Spanish etc. to cover the remaining minutes of the interview. The interviewer then asks me to pronounce the names of all of us as Spanish speakers sometimes struggle with the pronunciation of non-Spanish names. After all the build up, I manage to screw up when we come to Steve´s surname.
The show continues after we exit the interview booth and I´d say that the success of the interview was a little mixed. I´m standing around minding my own business afterwards when I hear a tap on the window. They want me to go back in to give my thoughts on the Champions League results of that day. After giving my thoughts on a bunch of games that I hadn´t actually seen the guy suggests that I should come back on Monday to give my opinions on the European football results of the weekend. A kind of, European football pundit if you will. Unfortunately, I kindly have to decline the offer as I´ll be leaving Xela in 2 wks and it doesn´t make sense to let down all the fans that I´m likely to accumulate in 2 wks...
