I smiled the entire week. Thanksgiving this year found us in one of my favorite places on the planet. It was cold — though not by Seattle standards — and the citizens of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato and Lagos de Moreno were struggling. Those late November days were crystal blue clear. By afternoon it was 75 degrees, and we were taking laps in the pool or a siesta under the persimmon tree on our patio furniture. But the señoras at the Mercado were all wearing two layers of wool serapes and moving spritely if only to keep warm.

“Cold” is relative, and I found myself really liking Mexico “cold,” a very comfortable 55-75 degrees.

When the Spanish were busy colonizing Mexico in the 1500s, they went inland to where the Aztecs, Yaquis, Zapotecs, Toltecs and other tribes lived. The climate on Mexico’s high and dry central plateau is almost always springtime. Bougainvillea and oleander blossom 12 months of the year. The conquistadores liked the climate and, even better, the rich veins of silver found in the rocky outcroppings and highlands.

The governors of New Spain decreed fortified towns every 24 miles, the distance that one could walk in a day’s time. The towns, of course, reflect the architecture of Catalan and Aragon of that era. Today, those historic Spanish towns are called the “Colonial Circle” and fan out between Mexico City, Guadalajara and San Luis Potosi.

If you want the real Mexico, make your next trip to where 65 percent of Mexicans live, to where the first cry of “freedom” in New Spain was heard. Go to pueblos — Queretero, Morelia, Santa Clara de Cobre, Dolores Hidalgo — where Mexico’s artists live. This circle is ground zero for Mexico’s rich culture and heritage.

It is surprisingly easy to get to the Colonial Circle. We flew American Airlines to Dallas, departing at noon, then caught Dallas’ daily flight to Leon/Guanajuato’s new state airport. Our arrival, on time at 10 p.m., was met by a driver from our first boutique hotel at Quinta Las Acacias in the historic, cultural capital of Guanajuato. Our hotel driver, Miguel, checked us in, and we found ourselves happily sharing tropical fruit in our casitas within a half hour from the airport.

I arranged all of our lodging through an organization called Mexico Boutique Hotels, www.mexicoboutiquehotels.com. Of the 47 boutique hotels that they represent, one-third are located in the central Colonial Circle of Baijo.

Each of the properties represented by Mexico Boutique Hotels has private ownership, and most are historic properties with architectural “bones” of literally hundreds of years. Besides making it easy to book four different hotels over eight nights with one call, in my case, they also helped with arrangements such as airport pick-ups and travel between their properties.

Guanajuato

Our first two days and nights were spent in the capital city of the state of Guanajuato, a town literally built on silver. Criss-crossing beneath its pedestrian-friendly cobblestone walking streets are former mining tunnels, now converted to highways and thoroughfares. Traffic stays out of sight, making Guanajuato a quiet, relaxed, yet lively university town of plazas, concert halls, student cafes, tree-shaded squares and museums, including one of my Top Ten favorites, the Don Quixote Museum. The silver that came out of the mines beneath Guanajuato provided such wealth that in 1988 this town was declared a UNESCO world heritage site, as its civic buildings are so grand.

Guanajuato loves Cervantes’ Don Quixote and hosts an annual Cervantes Festival during the first three weeks of October, which attracts international visitors. The museum is a year-round delight in which artists, including painters, sculptors, ceramicists and woodworkers, have portrayed different aspects of the story of the “Impossible Dream” using their own unique visions and art forms. With Quixote as the touchstone, this simple, unhurried museum shows the breadth of the creative mind.

Guanajuato is also the hometown of Mexico’s most famous artist — Diego Rivera, as well as its former President Vincente Fox. You can tour the modest home of the Rivera family and enjoy many of Diego’s earlier works. I recommend this museum, as well.

Mexico Boutique Hotels have two fabulous properties within walking distance of Guanajuato’s pleasant downtown core. Villa Maria Christina focuses on luxury and is pricier, but we chose Quinta Las Acacias because of its slightly quieter, park-like location and excellent views of the surrounding mountains. Quinta Las Acacias’ 17 rooms, including half that were recently built but capture the spirit of three centuries earlier, are spread over the hillside campus that affords vistas across the narrow valley and down to the city center. Las Acacias’ shady trees, quiet private patios, verandas and fountains are perfect for reading, bird watching or an afternoon siesta. Our room, with its king-size bed, massive bathroom and hot tub Jacuzzi, provided every comfort.

San Miguel de Allende

Unlike Guanajuato, where during our two days of exploring we encountered only one other norteamericano, San Miguel is full of gringo visitors and residents.

Our first two nights in San Miguel de Allende were spent at the famous Casa de Sierra Nevada, one of the oldest and most highly regarded of Mexico’s burgeoning collection of unique hotels. Casa de Sierra Nevada was recently purchased by the owners of the Orient Express Railroad, New York’s “21” Restaurant and Madrid’s Hotel Ritz, for starters — and they don’t bother with any property that is not A+.

I love Casa de Sierra Nevada and many of the other San Miguel properties because, from the street, you would not even know that it is a hotel. Behind the massive wood doors and stuccoed adobe, a five-star world of private courtyards, well-stocked libraries, belvedere views, swimming pools and massive guest rooms opens up. Sierra Nevada rooms come with fireplaces, king-size beds, business-desks, huge bathrooms, private patios (ours included a fireplace) and plasma flatscreen TVs.

The concierge services at Casa Sierra Nevada are ready to fill any guest’s days and nights. While Judy took the concierge’s suggestion — a market tour cooking class, the “best I’ve ever taken,” she reported — I explored San Miguel’s highly regarded art boutiques and galleries.

San Miguel de Allende has the third highest number of expatriate American voters in our recent national election, behind London, first, and Paris in second place. Its expatriate European, Canadian and American community is hyperactive. One night, the San Miguel American Library played the movie “The Visitor,” and the next night hosted a free lecture on guitarist Carlos Santana, another of Mexico’s proud success stories.

After enjoying Casa de Sierra Nevada for two nights, we moved a few blocks away to one of Mexico Boutique Hotel’s newer members, Dos Casas, for our last two days in San Miguel de Allende. Dos Casas is a smaller property that has put much of its emphasis on its restaurant, which would certainly be on our Top Five list of Mexican dining experiences. The dining room is spacious and set in understated dark tones, minimalist furnishings, with a fascinating collection of black and white photos of Mexico’s leading writers, artists, philosophers and intellectuals, complete with a published short biography of each. The accent here, though, is on the food, with a fusion yet continental approach — a concept recently imported from Spain, which has made that Mother Country the current European cuisine rage.

San Miguel, historically speaking, is Mexico’s “Williamsburg,” and well-to-do families visit from Mexico City and Guadalajara to pay homage to its central role in gaining independence from Spain. Along with its historic role, San Miguel sits at the center of fine arts for all of Mexico, and all of the country’s best young artists from Tlaquepaque to the Yucatan want to show in San Miguel’s galleries. In that sense, San Miguel is Mexico’s Santa Fe or Carmel.

The convergence of 14,000 non-Mexican residents plus a constant flow of 5,000 tourists, who come not for the beaches and margaritas but for the culture, history and arts, make San Miguel a “convergence zone” of taste, affluence and quiet elegance. Mercer Island friends Jan and Marcella Kofranek visited earlier this past fall for their first time, and Marcella, an active artist, came back raving about the creative, artistic vitality of the place. Jan, an immigrant to America from the former Czechoslovakia in 1968 and today a semi-retired architect, loved it too, if only for the superb beers that the Mexicans craft.

Lagos de Moreno

Our final two days in the Colonial Circle were spent at a remodeled horse ranch, Hacienda Sepulveda. This historic lake region of Lagos de Moreno remains famous, both in Mexico and the United States, for horse breeding and horse training. If you are considering a different Mexican vacation, Hacienda Sepulveda is an excellent choice if you enjoy horse-riding. Its setting, six miles from town, is peaceful and relaxed with large grounds for strolling, a small private lake for fishing or boating, and an extra warm, thermally fed, naturally heated pool for stretching tired muscles after a day of sightseeing. We enjoyed the refined atmosphere in which peacocks strolled the grassy grounds with a menagerie of roosters, exotic hens, guinea fowl and more.

The owner and manager of Hacienda Sepulveda are both happy to arrange tours of historic and beautiful Lagos de Moreno, or take guests on visits to the other haciendas in the district. But given that these were our last days south of the border, we were happiest lying in the sun and hopping in the wonderfully warm waters of the large swimming pool in the heart of the artfully decorated Hacienda Sepulveda.

Bill Morton can be reached at www.secondhalf.net.