Episode 2: A shot of Chile: Futbol at the Vila
El Guaton is a cute, unassuming bar tucked away in a little corner of the Vila Madalena- SamPa’s (i.e. Sao Paulo’s) most famous neighborhood. Vila Madalena is a labyrinth of winding roads that seem to slope up and down at will and is peppered with enough bars and restaurants to feed and thrill the entire population of any small European nation of your choice.
If that’s not thrilling enough, take a look around you and you will notice, unless you are blind or have a terrible hang-over, that the walls are full of mind blowing graffiti and sublime street art. Bernardo tells us with no note of exaggeration that to many it is like a temple. “You go to Vila when you are down and something spiritual happens.”
Grafitti at Vila Madalena
So we walk to Vila from Bernardo’s place and pass two magnificent churches and even a Necropolis to boot, in search of spiritual tranquillity before the all-important Brazil-Chile match.
We are on our way to meet Pep and Jule. Jule dates Pep and Pep is Chilean. So Jule supports Chile as well. Good that she decides to tell us this vital piece of information before we could wear our cheap Neymar jerseys from Church Street, Bangalore. In neutral blue attire we meet, what we expect to be the only two Chilean football supporters in all of SamPa. We are wrong. Pep suggests that we stop by at El Guaton for what he calls a little warming up. 11:30 pm and we could do with a bite. And then we realize the trick.
Vila Madalena in the meanwhile has slowly started transforming itself into what the tourist cards portray Brazil during the carnival to be. Thousands upon thousands of canary yellow shirts are walking towards the area. Small families carry in ice boxes full of beer and set up portable beer selling units along the pavements. A brave Chilean contingent makes its way through the yellow crowd and says hello to us. Pep takes out a Chilean flag from his bag and wears it like a cape. Bernardo whips out a Brazilian flag and leaves us to our fate. Faces painted green and yellow give us disparaging looks.
El Guaton, we realize, is Sampa’s most famous CHILEAN BAR! The fame being affirmed by an entire fleet of Police cars stationed outside it.
El Guaton on a normal day!
A woman walks up to us with a bottle of beer, just outside the bar.
“Where you from?” she asks
“India”
“So why are you with the Chileans?”
“….”
“Here have beer. Cheer for Brazil” She opens a Brahma can for us.
“Pep. Is this safe?”
“Yeah yeah. Let’s eat and then head for the match.”
We look at the menu and figure out Pratos Chilenos must be the Chilean specials. A Berinjela parmegiana, paired with a Mix El Guaton- the pub’s famed Suco. Now, ordering a Suco- i.e. a fruit juice- in a pub might sound strange. Even ridiculously unbelievable like the news of Wayne Rooney and co winning the World Cup for England.
But take note that Brasil is the place to try out any fruit juice that you can. They can do wonders with fruits whose names mere mortals have never heard of. From caju to graviola to acai to the Brazilian guava…tastes even better after a night full of Brahma beer.
A beautifully made lasagne of aubergine slices comes with a mix of guava and graviola. We chug all this down as soon as we can. I peep out of the door to see what’s going on outside. Yellow and green everywhere, and a crowd that could make Indian election-meeting gatherings blush and order another fleet of trucks. There are more cops outside El Guaton than customers inside it.
Our table keeps going “Ole! Ole Ole Ole! Chile Chile!” every five minutes. The guy next to me seems to be the most energetic of the lot in the Chile support brigade. “So where in Chile are you from?” I ask him.
“No. ARGENTINIAN!” he says and shouts out another gusty rendition of something that is intended to rile every Brazilian up. Of course!
And then we make our way to the FIFA fortress where the match is held. Our patch of red and neutral blue stands out so badly. We take our seats and realize it is better to stand as no one else seems to be in the mood to sit anywhere. Chile seems to be playing really well and the Brazilians are a little lack-lustre- like they have been throughout the tournament.
And then David Luiz scores and its absolute madness around. In just a little while, the all mighty Alexis Sanchez equalizes and we duck off sheepishly to get a coke, while Pep and co go wild.
I start praying that Brazil wins. “Seven more days to go in this country and if this team crashes out we are doomed” we whisper to each other. Hulk scores but the goal is disallowed. “We are going to be murdered. I can see the news article in Times of India page 8 already. Indian Couple Assaulted For Cheering Chile in Brasil”.match limps its way to a round of penalties, just to make things more interesting.
Brazil wins unconvincingly and all is well. Phew!
Vila Madalena after Brazil won the match!
We make our way back through the festive streets of Vila Madalena.
Our free beer providing lady is dancing around. She spots us and hugs us.
“Welcome to Brasil!” she says and volunteers to paint our face green. Pep and the Brazilian pose together for photographs with the face painted India and everything is just fine. Because the party has started. All over again.
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