The kapok tree is the apex of the arboreal food chain. It was very important as a source of flotation for life jackets and other nautical uses before modern synthetics, because of its buoyancy and resistance to water. It has very striking buttress roots, because the soil is not very firm, and it needs a way to spread the load (more details from Wikipedia). The resort people built a scaffold and stairs around the trunk so we could climb to the top and look out and down at the rest of the canopy. This one of the top branches. There are a myriad of other plants living along the branch: some are parasites, living off the tree, and others are epiphytes (like the orchids).