Caraça is a jewel among the vast crown of backroads Brazil, hidden in mid-eastern Minas Gerais.  Originally a seminary founded in 1820 which schooled a number of Brazil’s presidents, it is now a private Nature Park and Shrine, which includes Brazil’s first neo-gothic church.  The park is essentially a large bowl in the Espinaço, or Spinal, Mountain range, with the small complex lost in a sea of rain forest and dry savanna at 1,300m or 4,000′ above sea level.  These images are from three visits during which I took several hikes and was fortunate enough to see a Lobo Guará, or Maned wolf, up close.  [please hover over images for captions]