Originally published at: A secret tunnel leads to a magical world hidden inside a tree - Boing Boing
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If anyone offers you Turkish Delight, run!
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Besides the tree potentially collapsing on you, the strong possibility that it is already occupied by something that may not want to have visitors needs to be considered. Things with claws, pointy bits or, umm, strong odors, have the potential to make this kind of expedition very unpleasant.
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RFK, jr.
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And If you see a white rabbit…
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Covered that under “strong odors.” 
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So how does a treed get hollowed out like that?
I guess maybe the core died and bugs ate it, but the outer part is still alive? Why wouldn’t the bugs eat that too?
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Came here for this, was not disappointed.
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hate to promote a sense of fatedness yet if i visited such a log there’s a better than even chance i’d have a bear staring back at me (from such a comfy hollow) (“well you gotta pick a time during the bears’ shift change, don’t ya?”)
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For those of a certain Canadian age.
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Holy cow! I was in that tree two months ago. It is in Costa Rica, inside Corcovado National park. Our guide told us that he was the first person to find it, about eight years ago, but now most guides know where it is. It was totally amazing- there are bats inside, and a couple of vines hanging down inside the hollow.
Corcovado and Costa Rica are pretty amazing.
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I just commented below, but I have been in this very tree (it is in Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica) and there were bats in there, and it was pretty scary going in there- but amazing once you got inside. The local guides take people in there regularly. The guide did say there had been some scorpions and other critters in there in the past, but that enough people go in there to keep out too many other animals.
Corcovado does have jaguars, pumas, caimen, and fer-de-lance snakes, so plenty to be careful about. Also tapir, coatis, and thousands on birds. The place is amazing.
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Weird, video is totally failing to load for me.
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Why do trunks become hollow?
A hollowing trunk is a natural process and not necessarily a sign of an ailing tree. The centre of the tree is deadwood which is slowly decayed by fungi. The fungi is perfectly happy in the deadwood and will rarely touch the living sapwood.
Trees spend years storing up minerals in the wood in the centre of the trunk. As this wood is decayed, the minerals are released and can be used once more by the tree. Along with the yearly supply of leaves and any decaying branches, the hollowing trunk is providing the tree with recycled nutrients, helping it to live longer.
A hollow trunk might react better in high winds too, allowing the tree to bend and reduce damage.
From here
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Looks like fire damage to me.
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He’s paying $500 a month!
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The Xylem and Phloem (basically how a tree distributes nutrients throughout) run along the very outside of the tree. If you were to cut about a one inch ring around the outside of the tree, It would die probably 90% of the time.
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