Hi and Welcome to my website

Hi and welcome to my website and blog. My name is Arie Hoogerbrugge, I am originally from Canada, and for almost three years, I have been living in the jungles of Belize. I started my blog in 2019 and have currently written over 450 assorted blog posts (avg. 1,000 words each).

The first two years of my blog posts have revolved around my 26,000 km, two-year bike ride from Canada to my home in Belize. I started my bike ride on November 12, 2019, across Canada, through the USA, and down through Mexico, and arrived at my home in Belize on November 25, 2021. Yes, I biked through the 2019-20 Canadian winter. And yes, I have started to write my book about the adventure. Since then, I have been blogging about my life, challenges, and struggles of living in the middle of the jungles of Belize.

Bike touring the 2019-20 Canadian winter – Digby, Nova Scotia

You are personally invited to check out my blogs and follow me on all my social media channels. You can read about my website and everything I write about on my Home Page which can be found HERE. To find out more about my background please check out my About Me page HERE.

Reasons to Follow My Journey

If you are looking to move and live in Belize or the jungle, I can offer my unique insights.
If you live a less interesting, traditional lifestyle, I can perhaps inspire you to live with more adventure in your life. Or you can simply live vicariously through me.
If you love jungle, nature, and wildlife, I post about that almost daily.
I am currently expanding my Belize-related and bike-touring content.

I find boa constrictors on my farm regularly. Notice the flooding behind me.

Maybe I can help you

If you are looking to move to Belize and would like to talk to someone about your fears and hesitations about such a big move, perhaps we can talk. I am currently considering a vocational shift towards Goal Coaching. Similar to life coaching but more specifically to help people pursue life-changing goals. I am not a lawyer or a real estate agent so I can’t help with that stuff, but I can be an ear or a sounding board to your anxieties, fears, or plans. Please reach out.
If you are struggling to make or transition toward a life-changing goal other than moving to Belize. I have lived a rather unorthodox lifestyle in the pursuit of different goals and dreams in my life. I have fulfilled multiple dreams and goals by owning a reptile business, having been a long-haul truck driver, a bike tourer, and now a farmer in Belize. Please reach out.
I am currently looking to expand and grow my content and social media following. If you are a Belize tour guide and you would be interested in me doing a profile piece about you and your services offered. Please reach out.

My road in 2023

Maybe you can help me

If you are a website developer, my website and I could use a lot of help with SEO, and other website development matters. Perhaps you would be interested in staying in the jungles of Belize as a digital nomad for a while. I can help you with that if you can help me with my website.
Very soon I am looking to bike tour the entire country of Belize including all the back roads of the country. If you are a local or an expat and would be interested in hosting me. Please reach out. Perhaps I can do a profile piece on any interesting projects that you are currently working on.
If you are a wealthy expat and would like a guest to visit you at your fancy home or boat here in Belize, please invite me. I am polite, and clean and have many interesting stories to entertain you.

My Newest Project – Are you interested in living in Belize

A while back I realized that given my circumstance of living isolated and alone back in the jungle was not sustainable from a security perspective. This is why I invited another fellow Canadian to live here on the farm. The invitation is now extended to you. I am looking for more like-minded, preferably Canadians or Americans who might be interested in living on the farm. There are two options. I am currently starting to build a small cabana (tiny house) for the next person interested in living here or if you are interested in purchasing a prefabricated home and parking it on my land that is also an option. For more information check out this blog post – Are you interested in living in Belize? Here is an unusual opportunity. [Sidenote: If you are reading this sidenote that means that blog post is not 100% updated. For example, the greenhouse is not available for use anymore but I am currently expanding outside the greenhouse for gardening purposes and Chicken City has grown larger. I will attempt to update that blog post in the next day or two.]

Social Media Channels

Instagram – the_original_safariarie
YouTube – Safari Arie
TikTok – safari_arie
Facebook – Safari Arie

San Pedro, October 2023 – For the first time in 20 years I put my head underwater

A Glimpse of My Website Content Concerning My Life in Belize

Life in Belize posts – My day-to-day journals of projects I am working on during my day along with daily struggles and challenges. Included are lots of photos of my projects and the creatures I see in the jungle.

Belize Flora & Fauna posts – Recently I have started organizing and cataloging my better photos of flora and fauna I have discovered and seen in Belize.

Personal Reflection posts – This page has two parts to it. First, it’s a place where I post my reflections and vent as it relates to some of my challenges here in Belize. Secondly, it is where I post my Goal Coaching blog posts that reflect philosophies I do my best to follow and practice that have helped me to live a fairly unorthodox lifestyle.

I also have separate pages for my 2019-21 bike tour, bike touring and camping, and poetry blog posts.

A Black-tail Cribo Snake. Fast but also common on the farm.

A Glimpse of My Life in Belize

I visited Belize for the first time in 1997 and purchased my house in 2003. Since then, I have purchased 40 acres of the surrounding jungle. I live in the Community Baboon Sanctuary on the Belize River. I have about 400 coconut trees of various growth stages. In the last two years, I have planted an additional 600 assorted fruit trees from seed. I have built chicken coops, a 1,000 sq ft shade cloth greenhouse, and a tiny apartment. I currently am lending out the tiny apartment and greenhouse to a fellow Canadian who is looking to start a hot sauce company here in Belize.

Black Howler Monkey’s live here

During the first two years here (2021-23) I lived completely isolated by myself and had huge challenges to overcome that come with the territory of living in Belize. The only thing that has kept me going is being so immersed in nature and wildlife. I actively hunt for snakes and other reptiles (for photography purposes), I have had four mountain lions and recently my first jaguar sighting since arriving in Belize in 2021. Also, recently I adopted two malnourished and starving dogs that appeared out of the jungle.