Chelsea• Plus Size Hiker (2025)

26/12/2024

Meet me under the mistletoe 🎄💋

22/12/2024

Merry Crisis- just for you, here is our favorite tradition of me presenting you with the ugliest faces I made on my trip!

I’m sure the next trip (to Iceland, home of even weirder food) will have even more ugly faces for you to look forward to!

Hope you love it (I do not 😩) and happy holidays!

21/12/2024

After a long and intense week, it was a treat to have our last Costa Rican breakfast and head to the airport- land of frappucinos, fried egg rolls, and air conditioning.

A small group of us had a miniature farewell lunch at the airport before our flights boarded and said goodbye.

At the end of the day, I’m just so grateful for the friends I made, even if we were all going home covered in ant bites with broken shoes (or sprained ankles) and a little more trauma.

On the flight home, I saw a rainbow from the plane window and fulfilled my dream of literally being somewhere over the rainbow 🌈 it made my heart feel so full 🩷

I am exhausted, but I’m home and sweet baby Charlotte is all better and very cuddly. ♥️

costarica🇨🇷

20/12/2024

Our farewell dinner consisted of wearing a cute dress and drinking the chaotic disaster of our trip away.

Our night swim consisted of wearing a cute swimsuit and drinking the chaotic disaster of our trip away.

Pura Vida, Bi***es 🍹🍸🌴

costarica🇨🇷

19/12/2024

We spent some of our day in El Parque de Zarcero, which turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip.

We had breakfast at the hotel, traveled back to San José, and took a short stopover for lunch and a walk around the park on the way.

Of course, I had to take my signature spread eagle photo- this seemed like the place for it!

During lunch, some travelers played Pokémon Go and won a big battle!

In the park, Santa patted my head while I patted his 😏 ho ho ho indeed Costa Rica 🎅🏼

We also saw a gorgeous church decked out for Christmas (nice transition there, from Santa’s junk to Baby Jesus in a manger… sorry?) and also almost walked in during a wedding (oops!)

We attempted a small group selfie and… we mostly failed. But we had a good time anyway, as Hobbit Hikers tend to do.

costarica🇨🇷

18/12/2024

We traveled to the La Fortuna waterfall, but because of the flooding and massive amounts of rainfall, we were not allowed to hike all the way down into the bottom of the fall to swim. 💦

Some of the travelers hiked down anyway, and got some beautiful photos of the bottom of the falls. The rest of us stayed up at the top and had burgers and piña coladas 🍔🍹

The brave ones who hiked down saw a really cool gecko and a howler monkey!

When we return to the hotel, we decided to brave traversing down the slick jungle stair path covered in army ants back down to the hot springs for a final dip. Luckily, because of the rainfall, the army ants had been washed away!

After having some daiquiris in the springs, we hiked back up to dinner where shenanigans ensued. This was probably one of our more successful days, which isn’t really saying that much because the rest of the trip has been quite a disaster, but I do feel like we got some quality bonding time and a lot of laughs!

And any day, I am not attacked by a swarm of army ants is a good day in my book!

costarica🇨🇷

17/12/2024

We made our own chocolate bars! We saw a chachalaca bird (last slide)! We ground cacao beans and ate starfruit from the trees!

Started the day off with traditional Costa Rican breakfast - best fruit ever 🍉🍍

Took the San Juan coffee and chocolate tour- ending with coffee and chocolate samples (delicious!) ☕️🍫

I saw the biggest monstera plant ever! And that little yellow flowery plant is a golden shrimp plant (or lollipop plant!) 🍭🍤 I love both names, tbh. And the red plant is a firebird heliconia!

Making homemade chocolate does make for gross doodoo hands though. 🤷🏼‍♀️

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15/12/2024

After we toured the organic farm, we headed back to our new hotel in La Fortuna. We were exhausted and anxious because nothing had gone to plan. When we arrived at the hotel, it was not really what we were expecting.

The good news is that we were told there was an amazing natural hot springs that we could all soak in before dinner. The bad news is that the springs were a mile down a dirt road and another half mile trekking through the rainforest on slick rock stairs, which meant the trail was not accessible for some of our travelers.

On the bright side, the drinks down in the springs were strong and delicious. It was the best strawberry daiquiri I have ever had. Feeling a little bit better, we headed back up the rainforest stairs to head to dinner.

On the way back up, we accidentally stepped into a swarm of army ants. Army ants are super aggressive and will stop at nothing to bite and then sting you. In fact, they are so aggressive that you have to physically pull them out of your shoes and your skin in order to kill them.

One of the travelers sprained her ankle at the hot springs and then had to try and make it through the swarm with only one working ankle. Another traveler thought she tripped over some thing, but it turns out her entire shoe broke in half. It felt like everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. Murphy’s Law or whatever.

At dinner, we took shots and drink some of the pain away. As I was getting ready for bed, I found another army ant in my hotel room just waiting to bite me. I murdered him and threw his body in the toilet. I left him in his watery grave overnight as a warning to his brothers and sisters..

This trip has been a trip from hell, but I am still proud of every Hobbit Hiker who kept her chin up and managed to find things that were still silly and fun to celebrate.

When the going gets tough, the Hobbit Hikers get drunk.

Stay tuned for the rest tomorrow 🥲😂😅

13/12/2024

Animal JAM! Here are some cool lil guys I saw in Costa Rica!

1- brown-throated three-toed sloth 🦥
2- strawberry poison dart frog
3- wood stork
4- grapevine scarab beetle
5- blue-gray tanager
6- same sloth I just like him a lot
7- russet-naped wood-rail
8- green honey creeper
9- same stork but he fightin
10- osprey
11- rufous-tailed hummingbird

I love them all very much especially the frogs 🐸

12/12/2024

The Hobbit Hikers were supposed to travel to Sarapiqui today to post up in the Chilamate Rainforest Eco Retreat Lodge, where we planned to spend three nights surrounded by nature and falling asleep to the sounds of howler monkeys.

We were supposed to enjoy a 3-hour forest bathing meditation and guided forest therapy session, followed by a 2-hour night walk through the rainforest to look for sloths, kinkajous, and cool bugs.

Instead, due to the flooding and mudslides, we traveled instead to La Fortuna to visit the Herrera family’s organic farm. Let me preface this by saying that I adore this farm and this family, and I truly did enjoy making my own tortillas, eating freshly made cheese, and touring their farm. They’re lovely hosts and the food is delicious!

The only problem is that most of our group had already done this exact activity 2 years ago, so it wasn’t a new and exciting experience for most. I had a wonderful time, but I want to acknowledge that this was not the itinerary that my travelers paid for or planned on.

I am very proud of our group for having fun anyway— we are intrepid travelers! And I’m still so happy I got to spend time with such fun people. I do love the Herrera family and their farm, especially the birds and animals we spotted! And the fresh fruit, because nobody does fruit (or coffee!) like Costa Rica!

I’ll post all the cool animals we saw in a separate post because they deserve their own post!

In the wise words of , Pura Vida bi***es!

11/12/2024

Welcome to day 2 of our Costa Rican terror train!

We woke up with high hopes— the sun was out, breakfast was great, and all of our travelers had made it to the hotel! We loaded the bus with our luggage and were excited to head to the Chilamate EcoRetreat in the Costa Rican rainforest!

Then we saw the news- massive floods had destroyed our destination. People were being evacuated in boats. Our entire itinerary had been canceled. We decided to be grateful that we were not also being evacuated.

Our guide, Ivan, was stressed out and was very thankful to Mabry for the American treats she brought him! (Even though Mabry’s luggage was lost somewhere on the journey, she somehow made it all the way to San José with beaver nuggets and Christmas tree cake gifts because she is an angel!)

And because I cannot control the weather or drive a bus in Costa Rica, I decided to buy a sheet cake for everyone for breakfast. The group had mimosas and cake while we waited on updates.

After getting stuck in traffic for four hours, we finally made it to lunch in Sarchí, which is an artisanal town in Costa Rica.

After lunch, we headed to an oxcart factory where every piece is handmade and hand-painted. We also got to try our own hand at painting.

we spent another four hours in traffic on the way back to San José, had dinner at Café Mundo, and celebrated Christy’s birthday with carrot cake! We also got free shots of cacique- and I apologize for the photo at the end.

If you’re wondering, things did not go up from here 🥲 but I will say I am so grateful to have met the people I met on this journey. I

I had so many small moments of connection. Meeting y’all in person after only knowing you from the Internet really made it worth it to me, even though the trip was so disappointing. I’m just grateful for you all.

10/12/2024

First day in Costa Rica (before it all went to hell in a handbasket— or oxcart, whatever)

Woke up ready to greet the day! I had breakfast solo and al fresco at the KC Hotel by the pool. Gallo pinto, fresh papaya, platanos fritos, scrambled eggs, salchichón, toast with pineapple marmalade, and of course, the best coffee ever. Costa Rican arabica is the perfect coffee ☕️

I got ready for our welcome dinner after a midday nap and shower combo, ready to meet all of our Hobbit Hikers!

Then, we found out two travelers were experiencing flight delays and travel issues, and that neither of them would make it to San José in time for our welcome dinner. But we rolled with it!

I met a perfect little orange cat (who happily ate about half of my dinner… because I gave it to him 🤷🏼‍♀️)

We had a traditional Costa Rican Casado dinner at Sr. and Sra. Ese, where we were surprised with a cultural dance performance.

We were then even more surprised to find out we would be part of the performance! Shout out to ._.jean for always being my travel wife and dance partner 💃🏼💃🏻!

Back at the hotel, we had a nightcap by the pool before bed. Thankfully, and made it to San José around 1am safely!

And of course, a picture of the sunset + moonrise from the plane ride the night before because it was stellar ✨🌙

Stay tuned for the rest of our sordid tale— things don’t go up from here 😅

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25/11/2024

The AHVN Conference was a success- we had a sensory room, lots of dancing, and I got to see my favorite - Chancy!

It’s been a busy few months for me. I’ve been working, teaching Pilates, planning Hobbit Hiker trips, creating content, and next week I leave for Costa Rica!

Now that I’ve got my Instagram back, prepare yourselves for an explosion of Costa Rica content soon! ☀️🏝️🌊🩷

26/10/2024

Last night was insane, as it was supposed to be.

I got to scream Hokus Pokus in the third row at the Insane Clown Posse show at and I left absolutely drenched in buckets of Faygo.

I’m so glad I got to be surrounded by Juggalos, who are some of the most hospitable, least judgmental folks you’ll ever meet. They were kind, they offered me water, and they formed protective barriers for anyone who didn’t want to be in a mosh pit (me) and that’s more than you can say for most concert goers.

I will forever be glad I got to watch Violent J and Shaggy on stage together once in my lifetime. It was an experience and isn’t that why we’re here?

I may not be a full blown Juggalette, but I felt welcomed and accepted last night and I had a great time being down with the clown. 🤡♥️ woop woop y’all 🤡♥️

20/09/2024

Goodness Gracious Gravy 💁🏼‍♀️🌹🤴🏼

I felt like I was on stage I was so close to this show! Carter Vail opened, and was honestly one of the best live performers I’ve ever seen. He’s got great stage presence and his sound is like Modest Mouse meets Cake.

Gravy was Gravy- came out in chains and joggers, took his shoes off halfway through, tossed mini muffins and cash and roses into the crowd, and made pancakes on stage, which he either signed, threw, or ate.

It’s always a good time at a Gravy show. And shoutout to DJ Tip, who never fails to make everyone laugh. They’ve got a good crew.

Gravy, you were excellent. Meeting you was fabulous and you’re just a regular dude with cool beats and fun rhymes, which I appreciate. Thanks for the selfies and for my personal serenade, which I will never forget 🩷

🚂🍯

18/09/2024

Met Yung Gravy and he said I was a “real one” 😎

11/09/2024

You’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissing you 💋

03/09/2024

Working from hammock 🌥️

Chelsea• Plus Size Hiker