Canon EOS 6D, 300mm, f/7.1, 1/1400, ISO 500, 11:56am, Feb. 11 2018, Bocas de Polochic River, Melanny Quiñonez, FLAAR.
More Ceiba pentandra trees are visible along the Rio Polochic from Lake Izabal towards Panzos than almost anywhere else in the country. I personally experienced more ceiba trees this one day (Feb. 11th_2018) than in my previous 54 years of being in front of Ceiba trees throughout Mesoamerica.
More than 25% were flowering. Ceiba pentandra trees are very individual and independent of whether they will flower any given year. And you can have several ceiba trees together in the same field and some will be in flower yet others will have full leaf growth (which means no flowering whatsoever that month or perhaps that year).
I was also very surprised to note that many of these Ceiba pentandra trees were growing in seasonal swamp areas. A few were physically adjacent to the Rio Polochic (as I would expect their relatives, Pachira aquatica). Although there are lots of Pachira aquatica trees around Lake Izabal, I did not notice one single zapoton along the Rio Polochic (whose water is the source of Lake Izabal!).
I took over 400 photographs: 60mm Sigma lens, 100mm Zeiss lens, 200mm using a Nikon D810; 400mm, and 600mm Nikkor prime telephoto lenses with a Nikon D5 on a Wimberley WH-200 gimbal tripod head II on a 20+ year old awesome quality Gitzo tripod.
Posted Feb. 15, 2018
