San Miguel de Allende is a hill town in the highlands of Guanajuato, a little over two thousand metres above the sea, with cobbled streets climbing between ochre and rose-coloured walls, and in the middle of it the Gothic spires of the parish church rise improbably above the rooftops. The point on your map is in the centre of the town, and the sanctuary of Atotonilco, about fourteen kilometres away on the road to Dolores Hidalgo, was inscribed together with the town by UNESCO in 2008.
The town was founded by a Franciscan friar in the mid-sixteenth century and grew rich on silver and on the supply of the Camino Real to the mines, with Spanish landowners building grand baroque mansions around the central square. It is also the birthplace of Ignacio Allende, one of the leaders of the independence movement of 1810, and the town carries his name. The spire of the parish church, the Parroquia, was rebuilt in the 1880s by a local mason, Zeferino Gutierrez, who is said to have copied postcards of European Gothic cathedrals, which explains its strange beauty. At Atotonilco, a modest pilgrimage church is covered, inside, with paintings from floor to ceiling, an explosion of colour that has given it the nickname of the Sistine Chapel of Mexico. In September 1810, Allende and Miguel Hidalgo stopped here and took a banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe to lead their rebel army.
The surrounding highlands offer good riding, with open roads across plains of agave, corn and mesquite, and curving climbs into the hills. The streets of the town itself are steep and cobbled, with one-way systems that confuse, and the stones can be slippery when wet. Park outside the centre or in a car park and explore on foot. The rainy season is from June to September, with afternoon storms, and the dry months are pleasantly warm, with cold nights in winter. Atotonilco also has natural hot springs.
San Miguel has about seventy thousand people, a large community of foreign residents, and every kind of service, including fuel stations on the ring road. Restaurants range from taco stands to elegant courtyards, and the local mezcal and chocolate are worth a try. Book accommodation well ahead for festivals and weekends, and take care not to ride after dark on the highways, where livestock are common.