Our Story
Nature Retreat with Healing Dogs in Brazil.
For centuries, humans have been educating themselves on almost every topic imaginable — how to read, write, ride a bicycle, play an instrument, or concoct the perfect foamy cappuccino. We have designed formal educational institutions and we generally enjoy measuring ourselves to see who can race the fastest, get into the best university, or become the next Mozart of our generation. Nature-lover Dr. Evelyn Hartoch has always valued the importance of a formal education, while always maintaining a deep connection with nature and natural processes. The landscape architect obtained a Ph.D. in environmental structures from FAUUSP University in São Paulo as well as a Ph.D. in socio-environmental sciences from Kassel University in Germany.
In 2005, Evelyn combined her love of nature and the desire to share it with others by opening a natural healing center, about half hour drive away from the international airport of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. The goal was to create a space where guests could come take a break from the noise of the city and take refuge in nature through natural healing and quiet reflection at the center, which neighbors an ecological preserve. "For a long time I had been carrying and sharing the vision of a harmonious natural space that would provide a deep connection between the natural environment and the human being," Evelyn says. "My dream is that more and more people will become integrated into this powerful unique love for the good of all and our planet."
In addition to the families of monkeys and birds in the trees, Evelyn kept five dogs at the retreat center where she now lives. She was careful to keep the dogs separate from the guests at the healing center just as she was careful to keep the male dogs separate from the two females while they were in heat. The small pack of dogs soon increased to a pack of sixteen after one of her gardeners forgot to close the gate which separated the unfixed animals from each other. "I loved these dogs very much and they loved me," she says, "but it was never my plan to have so many, and I was initially upset with the gardeners for leaving the gates open. I didn’t know how I'd be able to nurture and properly care for more dogs."
This changed when the two litters were born just two days apart. "I saw each puppy had their own personality as soon as they opened their eyes, and in their eyes I saw a reflection of their soul" she says. "Today, they have complex relationships with each other and even their own hierarchy. Princesa, the matriarch, educated her puppies so well that our neighbors thought that we had educated them, but the fundamental education came from their mother!"
Before then, Evelyn believed that animals' personalities were dependent on how they were treated by their owner, though she reassessed this theory as the puppies matured. It was then that she had a revelation — animals are just as complex and distinct from one another as humans. She realized that people cannot fully understand this notion by sitting in a classroom; instead they must experience it firsthand in nature. This prompted a new idea for an additional retreat option for guests: a restorative space that focused on animal therapy within the context of a lush natural environment.
Retreat Bela Natureza welcomes guests from all over the world who come not only for the holistic therapies and nearby beaches, but to seek companionship with and receive unconditional love from the dogs.
It is Evelyn's wish that visitors will be able draw comparisons from watching the animals interacting together and apply this wisdom to their own lives.
"I'm glad they're ours," she says. "It is our unending love story."
If you would like to know more about Retreat Bela Natureza's retreat-packages for nature and animal-lovers, please click here.
If you are an instructor or group leader looking for a location for your meditation, Yoga, healing, nature-lovers or artistic course, project, studies, or other group activity, please click here.