In 2011, Peruvian geologist Andrés Ruzo followed his grandfather's story into the Amazon and confirmed a 6.4-kilometre stretch of river that runs at 86 degrees Celsius with no volcano within 700 kilometres, hot enough to cook small animals that fall in.

In 2011, Peruvian geologist Andrés Ruzo followed his grandfather's story into the Amazon and confirmed a 6.4-kilometre stretch of river that runs at 86 degrees Celsius with no volcano within 700 kilometres, hot enough to cook small animals that fall in.

Deep in the central Peruvian Amazon, more than 700 kilometres from the nearest active volcano, a stretch of river runs at an average temperature of 86 degrees Celsius — hot enough to poach an egg, hot enough that a frog falling from an overhanging branch is dead before it hits the far bank. Its eyes cloud first, then its skin sloughs, then the hot water pours into its mouth and cooks it from the inside. The river is called Shanay-timpishka, whic…