The Boiling River

When he was twelve years old, Andres Ruzo was told a strange story by his grandfather: Spanish conquistadors that went deep into the Amazonian rainforest in search of gold found a river so hot that it boiled from below.

Years later, as a graduate student in geophysics, Ruzo wondered if the legend of the Amazonian boiling river could be true.

But when he approached his senior colleagues, Ruzo's idea was dismissed as crazy - the Amazon was hundred of miles away from any active volcano. There couldn't be such a thing ... or could there?

Rizo himself couldn't quite believe that a boiling river in the Amazonian rainforest could exist ... until he saw it himself:

The river turned out to be no legend at all, but the sacred geothermal healing site of Mayantuyacu, nestled deep in the Peruvian rainforest and protected by a powerful shaman.
Up to 82 feet (25 meters) wide and 20 feet (six meters) deep, the river surges for nearly 4 miles at temperatures hot enough to brew tea or cook any animals unfortunate enough to fall in. And yes, a small portion of it is so hot that it actually boils. There are documented hot springs in the Amazon, but nothing nearly as large as this river.

Read the rest over at Gizmodo | The Boiling River website

Photo: @theboilingriver


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