Day three began, as apparently every day, with the sun streaming in the windows. I have yet to see a cloud. That is not hyperbole. I have literally yet to see a single cloud in the sky. It is constantly, uniformly, unbelievably sunny here.

Of course we’re at 7,000 feet, so that means by nighttime there’s no cloud cover to hold in the day’s warm air, and it gets cold at night. Really cold. Like 38 degrees cold. The days go up to the mid-70s, then quickly retreat to nippyville. The first two nights in my apartment were icy, but today was a warmer day and the place heated up to a decent temperature and is pleasant as I write this (11:15 p.m.)

I worked in the morning, until about 1:30 p.m., then went for the 25 minutes walk into downtown, where I scoped out the apartment I’m moving to tomorrow (maybe — I actually don’t think I found it after all) and the theater I was going to tonight. Guanajuato is a maze of twisty, narrow, cobblestoned alleys, winding streets, tunnels, bridges and hills. It’s like a European town was disassembled, flown to the highlands of Mexico, and then reassembled minus the instructions. Luckily, the signage here is excellent. Not so luckily, I have yet to see a map. 

Some of the streets are entirely closed to cars, and those that are open to cars have narrow sidewalks where people walk both ways (and walk in the street). It’s all very quaint, with a distinctly Mexican flavor.

Tonight I walked back into town and went to see the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad de Guanajuato. The symphony plays at the Teatro Principal, a lovely theater that’s about the size of the Newmark Theater (for those in Portland). The original theater was built in 1788, but burned to the ground in the 1920s and was rebuilt in 1955.

The symphony was playing Programa Navideño … Con Sabor a Jazz (Christmas Program with a taste of Jazz). It was fantastic (and not a little bit bizarre listening to a symphony in Mexico play American Christmas standards).

The conductor was charming and genuinely having a blast. He gave a brief introduction to each piece, which I mostly understood. My Spanish is coming back every day. It was a brilliantly-constructed program.

It opened with five pieces from the Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky, of course), then the very bouncy Sleigh Ride (Paseo en Trineo), one of the very best pieces to hear any symphony play, complete with the clomping of hoofbeats (if I were in the symphony I would totally play hoof).

Then The Christmas Song (Canción de Navidad), by Mel Torme and Robert Wells (“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”). Followed by a swing version of Good King Wenceslas called Good Swing Wenceslas. And then Winter Wonderland (Llegó la Navidad).

Then, brilliantly, the show closed with the same five Tchaikovsky Nutcracker pieces as in the opening, only in a big band jazz arrangement by Duke Ellington. It was an amazing way to bring the concert full circle and the symphony was having a blast playing, especially the brass soloists. A very portly trumpeter kept having to hike his pants up every time he stood to play, and he barely fit into his tuxedo jacket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xslI86VqX78

The audience demanded an encore, which was a reprise of Winter Wonderland.

Oh yeah, the ticket for the concert was 80 pesos, or $6.42.

After the concert I walked over to the main plaza, where I had a tasty dinner of chicken and rice with a Mexican seasoning and fresh squeezed orange juice ($6.24). The plaza was absolutely packed with people. In fact, all of the main downtown area was filled with pedestrians, teens running about, people on dates. It was just filled with energy and joy, with a newly-raised Christmas tree in front of the historic Teatro Juarez and a youth band playing Mexican favorites. Plus, inexplicably, a Christmas transvestite in platform heels. There’s a gentle sense of the holiday season here, but much more toned down than the US Christmasaurus. It’s a delightful light flavoring of Navidad.

I walked around a bit to take in the flavor and enjoy the evening, then walked the 25 minutes back to my apartment. Tomorrow I move to an apartment closer to the center of town, and a punishing walk up the side of the mountain. I should have packed a helicopter.