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Good Vibes
When traveling the South American coast, especially in surfers’ villages, you will hear it everywhere around you: Buena Onda! Usually accompanied by a Shaka and a very, very big smile.
In Spanish it literally means ‘good wave’ but essentially it means ‘good vibes’. Somebody could have a buena onda, the situation could be Buena onda or you could feel Buena onda.
And this Buena Onda is exactly what I experienced during my travels in South America.
To keep myself busy during endless bus rides from one village to the other, I bought rope to make bracelets and keychains. Using very basic braiding techniques I made bracelets with shells I found on the beach or with stones I found during hikes in the mountains. There would always be a curious person asking ‘¿Qué está haciendo? What are you doing? A great way to start a bus ride long conversation.
Little by little I started improving my techniques (or so I thought) and you could find me knotting whenever I had a free moment.
One evening in a hostel in Colombia, a guy from El Salvador approached me. Apparently, he had been watching me for a while and couldn’t stand it no longer. He said: Hola gringa, quieres aprender como lo hago? Do you want to learn how I do it? And that was the start of three long days and evenings of classes for me.
He taught me numerous knotting techniques, how to add an adjustable closing, that every piece of work has to be perfect and all the ins and outs of his country. Most of the details about El Salvador I forgot, but never how his techniques and experience have been an inspiration to me and how much fun we had spending time together.
Now that my bracelets were looking like actual bracelets rather than a creation from a 5-year old, I started to draw attention from fellow travellers. People were very interested in the bracelets and in making them. So, I ended up spending hours and hours showing travellers from all over the world how to make bracelets. Sometimes smoothly, other times very much distracted by conversations, music and laughter.
When you travel you see a lot of people coming, becoming your friends and then going. Every time you part ways, physically you are saying goodbye, but in your memory that person will always be. To those special people I gave a bracelet, made with extra love and attention. Hoping they would cherish the special and fun moments as much as I did.
This was years ago and still I receive pictures from travel buddies of discoloured, tattered bracelets and anklets, with the message that they are surprised it ‘still hasn’t come of yet!’. I am also surprised, maybe it was because of the extra love I put into making them.
My travels have brought me so so much: joy, knowledge, experiences, friendships, bedbugs, skills and much more. But the extra interaction with fellow travellers because of the bracelets made this adventure one with a lot of Buena Onda!
