Sanctuary Caraça — Attraction in Região Geográfica Imediata de Santa Bárbara - Ouro Preto

Stayed 1 night here. It’s open to day visits but I wouldn’t bother with that, as wherever you set off from it must be a long drive in, and you don’t get to stay for a chance to see the maned wolves in the evening. Seeing the wolves is magical. Beautiful countryside location. Excellent trails for hikes up to 6km (12km out and back) without a guide, or further up onto the ridges with a guide. 3 good meals per day. Simple, clean rooms, in keeping with it being a religious sanctuary. Games room with a useable pool table. WiFi is decent in some parts of the premises. The church seemed quite nice to me; less garish than the others we saw in Minas, and this one has some nice stained glass windows. There’s a museum I didn’t go in. Highlights are the hiking, the nature, the food, and by a country mile: the wolves, which provide a truly incredible experience. We saw 1 wolf, a female, but apparently her mate visits too, sometimes. If you’d like a couple of tips, do read on. If not, now would be a good time to stop reading. 1-Bring some large bottles of water. There’s an empty fridge with most/all rooms. There’s a drinking fountain on site but the water is an unappetising yellow. Water is sold at a slight markup. 2-Do the Cruzeiro trail. It’s steep but short and finishes with an excellent view over the sanctuary. 3-Wolf watching: wolf down your own dinner then get outside and take the seat at the top of the steps. This should give you a chance to take some pictures of the wolf without other people in the background. It seems the wolf is quite likely to come when the food is first put out around 7:30pm. If you all get lucky and see the wolf nice and early, many tourists will go to bed and you can stay up and hope to see the wolf return when there are fewer people. I went back to the wolf area about 9:30pm and there were just 6 other people there. Unfortunately, 3 gents were standing at the top of the stairs having a loud conversation and blocking the wolf’s path. Another man was sat down coughing up a lung and periodically allowing loud bursts of noise to come from his phone. Rather than sit with buffoons, I decided to retire and come back after midnight, but I should’ve waited them out. Around 1am I was back out there alone and the guide came out and told me the wolf came back at 11:50pm, around half an hour after the chatty lads had gone to bed and the coughing man had died. I sat around until 1:30am but wasn’t lucky enough to get a private viewing. If I hadn’t had to drive the next day I might’ve sat up all night: it was a lovely temperature and no bother from insects. I’d consider 2 nights if I ever visited again. 4-If you can, visit on a weekday, when there will presumably be fewer tourists. I was there on a Wednesday and there were 30 of us, but I think the sanctuary has rooms for many more. Finally a tip for the sanctuary (I’m sure the staff will have read this far down): The guide needs to be out there with the tourists BEFORE the wolf comes! To say there were 30 of us, the behaviour wasn’t actually that bad, but still, tourists flouted the rules by standing at the top of the steps and talking too loud. When someone called out he could see the wolf, half the people started bouncing around, taking photos and talking in outdoor voices and scared the wolf off, while those following the basic rules (sit down and shut up) didn’t get to see a thing. Thankfully, the wolf came back when the guide came out with food, but if it hadn’t come back, someone would’ve got chinned. Probably the guy who let his phone alarm go off and sneezed wholesomely when the wolf was just plucking up the courage to climb the steps. Anyway, sanctuary folk, please, the guide needs to get out earlier and explain how to behave (even though written instructions are everywhere). It’s a brilliant place. So glad I got the...

The location itself is fabulous and really beautiful! The nature around the monastery is pristine and there are lots of birds and mammals. The monastery itself looks amazing. The rooms are a bit cold (it was winter when we visited), but it was comfortable. The thing we were surprised and really unhappy with was the plastic single-use by the hotel. Everything (!!!) is wrapped in plastic... The blankets are wrapped in plastic, the soap are small plastic bottles.. at the restaurant you have to take plastic gloves before going to the buffet, the cutlery is wrapped in plastic, coffee cups, desert cups, desert spoons etc are all wrapped in (single-use) plastic. One of the biggest problems in the world is pollution of nature by plastic, and especially in Brazil there isn't any good recycling system. We would expect a hotel who ask prices like this (about 100 USD$ a night) and who have a religious background to care more about the creation of the Lord. There are lots of good alternatives for all of these. Alcohol gel for the hands should be enough when going to the buffet, also when grabbing cutlery. Glass cups and normal spoons for coffee and desert... Soap dispensers in the shower etc. Really hope they change this, because the amount of waste that is created in this place was the worst we have seen in any hotel in Brazil after 2 months...

Previous reviewers have said that the simplicity of this place is entirely appropriate - and I agree. I rarely give 4 stars to any location and this is only the second time I have awarded five stars. It is a stunning place in a stunning location. Food is cooked on wood-burning stoves and the wood is piled up in the corner of the room. The monks leave huge amounts of meat on the terrace for the maned wolves and people wait up to see them. It's a very rare mammal. On the first occasion we waited until 2.30 am (or rather she waited, and then woke us all up). Then a different wolf appeared at about 6.30 pm on the same day. My wife was not amused. ||||One key point - this is a very high area AND IT GETS EXTREMELY COLD AT NIGHT. There is no heating in the hotel and the hot water didn't perform very well. Perhaps we were not willing to run the shower for long enough. So take some warm clothes. Don't think as we (Brits) did that Brazil is in the tropics and therefore it will be warm. It was virtually...