Andrés Ruzo

The Case of the Mysterious Boiling River

by Lucas Chien, 11

When Andrés Ruzo was a young boy in Peru

His grandfather told him a story that gave him a quest to do

Did you know in the Amazon there’s a secret boiling river?

Now let me tell you a tale that will make you quiver.

The river was part of a legendary tale

Of when the Spaniards who conquered Peru set off on a gold hunting trail

They returned with stories of poisoned arrows and trees that blotted the sun

Spiders that ate birds, snakes that swallowed men, and other tales that stun

What haunted Andrés was a dream of a river thrashing with heat

Would Andrés and this river ever meet?

When Andrés grew up and got his PhD

He asked experts in the field about what they see

The experts said without a volcano, no river could boil

But Andrés wanted to discover for himself if he could find this river that roiled

As he shared his dream at a family dinner

His aunt told him she had swum in this very river

As he hiked into the jungle, he heard a low surge and felt a quiver

And there it was: a boiling river!

He grabbed a thermometer and plunged it into the heat

I could boil an egg here! he thought. Now isn’t that neat.

He asked for soup and was handed a cup 

No need to boil water. Just dip and sup.

How this river was created was a mystery

Until he researched and found what would change history

He found the river was powered by the Earth’s heat

That organisms lived in it that couldn’t be beat

They are called extremophiles as they can survive extreme conditions

They show us what it’s like to survive without our usual provisions

So by being curious about microbes and boiling rivers we better learn how to survive

Because that is how Nature thrives