San Miguel de Allende Geography: What Makes Our Location So Singular?

By Dr. David Stea

Do you know the geography of San Miguel de Allende? Do you know there exists an upper and lower San Miguel, the upper beginning at the commercial plaza called La Luciérnaga (the firefly), and the lower flowing down to the Presa (the lake)?

From the lower, one highway leads north to San Miguel coming through several small towns and spectacular wineries, entering San Miguel proper, onto one of the two routes connecting lower San Miguel to the upper. Through a road called el Caracol (The snail), which is well-named, and about as curvaceous as anything you´d normally want to negotiate. The two routes from lower to upper San Miguel join at La Luciérnaga.

A truly unique and spectacular feature of upper San Miguel is El Charco del Ingenio, a lake that is a temporary home to the many birds that migrate in summer and winter. The small lake cascades in to a lagoon in lower San Miguel, at La Aurora, a restored old textile mill that houses many wonderful art galleries. San Miguel is north of Mexico’s earthquake belt, where the last even slightly serious earthquake occurred a hundred years ago. However, big quakes in Mexico, are often felt in San Miguel with little or no damage. The last really disturbing eruption in our area was about one hundred years ago and somewhere around 4.8 on the Richter scale. 

A hundred years ago is a long time, and longer than we need to be worried about right now.  

San Miguel has several small volcanoes, of which the largest one, the Palo Huérfano is some 2,000 years old, and has been dormant, perhaps even extinct, for thousands of years. Prehistoric sources of heat affect the waters, and thus have been created the hot springs of our area, far from the volcanic belt of northern Mexico, which centers, more or less, on Mexico City.

Of the dozens geothermal springs just outside our area, a half-dozen are commercialized. The positive aspects are the geothermal springs are here for us to enjoy.