Frogs that have fallen into this river are boiled alive; sticking your hand into the water, you can get a serious burn; the temperature in some places is like in a teapot.
The legends of the conquest times mention all kinds of dangers that awaited the Spaniards on their journey to El Dorado: giant snakes, poisonous rivers and a river in which you can boil alive. The Peruvians have known for thousands of years that a river of boiling water flows in the jungle. The rest of the world became convinced of this only in 2016, when the Peruvian geophysicist Andrés Ruzo published the book "Boiling River", in which he spoke about how he found the legendary place.
In fact, Ruzo had a completely pragmatic task - he was writing a dissertation on the sources of geothermal energy in Peru. In the process of preparing the materials, he several times stumbled upon the mention of a legend that he often heard in childhood - the story of a boiling river. The experts to whom Ruzo addressed, unanimously argued that this could not be, but the geologist's aunt said that the river was quite real, and they even swam in it with Andres when he was little.
Ruzo gathered a small expedition, went into the jungle and, in fact, found a river of boiling water. In the hottest areas, the water temperature rose to 98 ° C, the average was only 10 degrees lower. Dense steam rose over the banks, and animals boiled alive - mice, snakes, frogs - swam in the water.
Hot springs and small lakes around them can be found on all continents except Antarctica, but nowhere, except Peru, there is so much hot water that it flows like a river. The width of the Peruvian river of boiling water is 25 meters, the depth is about six in most of the channel; the hot part is more than 6 kilometers. The nearest area of volcanic activity is 700 kilometers from the river bed, so the origin of the hot springs feeding the "teapot river" still causes confusion among specialists.
Ruzo studied the river and its ecosystem for five years. He found out that the local Indians called her Shanai-timpishka ("heated by the heat of the sun"). Among the bacteria inhabiting the paired shores, species previously unknown to science were discovered that are resistant to temperatures at which other microorganisms die. It turned out to be quite possible and even pleasant to swim in it - but only when the rains dilute the boiling water. Most often, boiling water from the river is used to make tea, coffee and food.