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1、The boiling river of the AmazonAs a boy in Lima, my grandfather told me a legendof the Spanish conquest of Peru. Atahualpa, emperor of the Inca, had been captured and killed. Pizarro and his conquistadors had grown rich, and tales of their conquest and glory had reached Spain and were bringing new w
2、aves of Spaniards, hungry for gold and glory. They would go into towns and ask the Inca, Wheres another civilization we can conquer? Wheres more gold?小时候，我住在利马；爷爷给我讲了一个关于-西班牙征服秘鲁的传奇故事。印加帝国的末代皇帝阿塔瓦尔帕，被抓住并处死。皮萨罗和征服者们变得富有起来，他们攻克秘鲁的传说和赞颂传到了西班牙，吸引了一批西班牙人来此淘金。他们去到镇子里，问印加人：“还有哪个文明没被攻克？还有哪里有黄金？”And the Inca
3、, out of vengeance, told them, Go to the Amazon. Youll find all the gold you want there. In fact, there is a city called Paititi - El Dorado in Spanish - made entirely of gold.而出于报复，印加人就告诉他们：“去亚马逊，那里有挖不完的黄金”。事实上，那里有一个叫做帕依提提 西班牙语叫El Dorado的城市是由黄金建成的”。The Spanish set off into the jungle,but the few th
4、at return come back with stories, stories of powerful shamans, of warriors with poisoned arrows, of trees so tall that they blotted out the sun, spiders that ate birds, snakes that swallowed men whole and a river that boiled.于是这些西班牙人动身前往那片丛林，结果只有少数人带着故事回来了，他们带回了关于强大的萨满巫师的故事，关于拿着毒箭的武士的故事，关于那里的树太高以至遮住
5、了阳光的故事，关于吃鸟的蜘蛛、能够吞下一整个人的大蛇，以及一条沸腾的河流的故事。All this became a childhood memory. And years passed. Im working on my PhD at SMU, trying to understand Perus geothermal energy potential, when I remember this legend, and I began asking that question. Could the boiling river exist?所有这些都成为了我的童年记忆。多年过去了，我到了南方为理
6、公会大学（SMU）攻读博士学位，当我试着了解秘鲁的地热能源潜力时，我想到了这个传说，于是想到了一个问题。传说中的那条沸腾的河流真的存在吗？I asked colleagues from universities, the government, oil, gas and mining companies, and the answer was a unanimous no. And this makes sense. You see, boiling rivers do exist in the world, but theyre generally associated with volca
7、noes. You need a powerful heat source to produce such a large geothermal manifestation. And as you can see from the red dots here, which are volcanoes, we dont have volcanoes in the Amazon, nor in most of Peru. So it follows: We should not expect to see a boiling river.我咨询了一些同僚，他们来自各大高校，政府部门，石油、天然气和
8、矿业公司，所有人的答案都是“不”。这个答案是有道理的。因为沸腾的河流的确存在，但通常是在火山旁。只有一个强大的热源，才制造出如此大的地热现象。你看到的这些红点，它们代表火山，而在亚马逊是没有火山的，秘鲁的大部分地区也没有火山。所以得出的结论为：这片区域看不到沸腾的河流。 Geothermal energy is produced by heat from inside the earth. As a boy in Lima, my grandfather told me a legendof the Spanish conquest of Peru.Telling this same stor
9、y at a family dinner,my aunt tells me,But no, Andrs, Ive been there. Ive swum in that river.在一次家庭聚餐上我又讲了这个故事，然后我的阿姨告诉我，“不，安德烈，我去过那，我在那条河里游过泳”。Then my uncle jumps in. No, Andrs, shes not kidding. You see, you can only swim in it after a very heavy rain, and its protected by a powerful shaman. Your au
10、nt, shes friends with his wife.然后我叔叔也加入了讨论，”真的，安德烈，她没有开玩笑，只有在大雨过后，才能在里面游泳，它被一位强大的萨满巫师保护着，而你的阿姨，跟他的妻子是朋友”。You know, despite all my scientific skepticism, I found myself hiking into the jungle, guided by my aunt, over 700 kilometers away from the nearest volcanic center,and well, honestly, mentally pr
11、eparing myself to behold the legendary warm stream of the Amazon.尽管我作为科学家，对此表示怀疑，还是在我的阿姨带领下，踏上了那片丛林，那里距最近的火山口有700公里，坦白说，我已经做好了见证那条传奇的“亚马逊暖流” 的心理准备了。But then .I heard something,a low surgethat got louder and louder as we came closer.It sounded like ocean waves constantly crashing, and as we got close
12、r, I saw smoke, vapor, coming up through the trees. And then, I saw this.但是，紧接着，我听到一些声响，随着我们逐步走进，一股低涌-变得越来越响彻。就像海浪不停的冲击一样，而当我们走近时， 我看到烟雾和蒸汽从树林中冒出。不久，我看到了这个。I immediately grabbed for my thermometer, and the average temperatures in the riverwere 86 degrees C. This is not quite the 100-degree C boiling
13、 but definitely close enough. The river flowed hot and fast.I followed it upriver and was led by, actually, the shamans apprenticeto the most sacred site on the river. And this is whats bizarre - It starts off as a cold stream.And here, at this site, is the home of the Yacumama, mother of the waters
14、, a giant serpent spirit who births hot and cold water. And here we find a hot spring,mixing with cold stream water underneath her protective motherly jawsand thus bringing their legends to life.我立马拿起了温度计，测量到这条河流的平均温度为86。虽然这并没有达到100的沸点，但也很接近了。这条高温河水流湍急。在这位萨满大师徒弟的带领下，我沿河而上，去往这条河最神圣的地点。奇妙的事情发生了，这条河的起点
15、是冷流。而这个地方，是亚库马马的故乡，亚库马马是河之母，是创造冷热水的巨大的蛇灵。而在这里，我们找到了一处热泉，同受她保护的河口下的冷流混合在一起，将这些传说变为现实。The next morning, I woke up and -第二天早上，当我醒来的时候I asked for tea.I was handed a mug, a tea bagand, well, pointed towards the river.To my surprise, the water was clean and had a pleasant taste,which is a little weird for
16、 geothermal systems.我说想喝杯茶。于是有人递给我一个马克杯，一个茶包，然后，指着那条河。让我惊讶的是， 河水是如此的清澈，喝起来也很可口，这对于地热系统来说是有点异常的。What was amazing is that the locals had always known about this place, and that I was by no means the first outsider to see it. It was just part of their everyday life. They drink its water. They take in its vapor. They cook with it, clean with it, even make t
