Kapok

Tonight we're staying at the Hotel Kapok, a boutique hotel just barely east of the Forbidden City.  This is where Alan and Stephanie stayed when they were in Beijing and where Steve and Suka will call home for the next week. It's a very modern, ...

... photo organizing before lunch. At 3:30 I head over to the Mariposaria for butterfly viewing before our trip to the Kapok tower. The butterflies are kept in a large screened tent shaped structure with typical double door entrance to keep the butterflies ...

... . We saw 3 tucans and a few other neat birds whose names I don't know as the guide only knew the names in Spanish. There was a huge Kapok tree though. We were unable to get the whole tree in a picture. We did get pictures of us near the roots. It was very ...

... es muy bien. Estamos consado despues el vuelo. We arrived at our hotel at 1:20am beijing time. We are staying at the hotel kapok, very near the forbidden city. First impression is this is a very nice hotel. The flight went well. It was a long ...

... room that we just weren't up for it. We lounged around for a bit, then just set out to explore the neighborhood. The Hotel Kapok is a cool little boutique hotel just a couple of blocks east of the east gate to the Forbidden City. The east gate is really ...

... the guys racing down through the trees back to the ground. The first day of the three peaks challenge saw Jose climbing the Kapok first and sitting on the branch waiting for the others to climb so that he could take photos of them. Jose obviously ...

... with the exception being that I am now much closer to the leopards, who prefer to hang out in the trees. I see beautiful kapok trees in this jungle, and am reminded of my parent's favorite restaurant in Florida. In this jungle these trees grow mighty and ...

... jackets and bedding use to be filled with. They grow like cotton on trees and while no longer economical to harvest, apparently kapok is still used in Britain. The bougainvillea and jasmine were out in full bloom. Iglesia Matriz (1680 - oldest Church in ...

... On the grounds of Joya de Ceren, Mario pointed out various trees including this young "Ceiba" tree.  In English it is called kapok and was considered a sacred tree by the Mayans.  As a young tree it, the bark is covered by these thorns but as ...

... been some green pods about the size of a tennis ball but imagine the ball as oblong.  I have found out that it is the Kapok tree and inside the green pods are the fluffy kapok that we used to use to stuff cushions etc. Another tree that you see usually ...

... nbsp;             One trip into the swamp we went to the Kapok Tower   ...

... a tributary to the blackwater lake and hiked for a short distance to the biggest treehouse I have ever seen.    Built around a gigantic Kapok tree, the wooden stairs go up 125 feet to a wooden platform in the top of the tree.    Above ...