Learn about the Amazon's 'boiling river' with scientist Andrés Ruzo

The “boiling river” began as a legend of a lost city of gold, a story Andrés Ruzo’s grandfather told him in Peru. And now the mythic Amazonian river has become his passion and life’s work.

“Looking into that legend, there’s a detail of a river that boiled in the heart of the Amazon, which doesn’t necessarily make sense and hadn’t been mapped certainly,” Ruzo told CTV News.

After receiving the blessing of locals, Ruzo has since visited the site in Peru several times, mapped it, and recorded its overwhelming heat.

“The hottest temperature I measured got up to 99.1 degrees Celsius,” he says.

“Hot enough to kill you, amazingly enough.”

Ruzo will give a presentation on the boiling river Jan. 26 and 27 at the Jack Singer Concert Hall as part of the National Geographic Live series.

“The magic number for humans, if you will, which is about 47 degrees Celsius or about 117 degrees Fahrenheit, is where you and I start to cook, my friend. So, you don’t want to fall in above those temperatures.”

• Watch the full interview with Ruzo in the video player above

And how did he study a geothermal phenomenon so hot it could kill him?

“Carefully,” he says.