Amazed at the quality and beauty of Merida's cultural offerings

The Teatro Peon Contreras can be seen in the distance, four blocks away, from the Casa Mexilio dining room, and after the short walk it's like arriving in some European capital with the nucleus of the 18th C. University of Yucatan buildings on one side of the street and the 1900 Italianate opera house on the other.

Yesterday's concert was full of new surprises and old friends.

• Ficciones/Mario Lavista

• Concierto para violín/Jean Sibelius

• Sinfonía No. 1/Johannes Brahms

Guest: Elaina Mikhailova on violin, Juan Carlos Lomónaco directing