Pabellón de Hidalgo is a small town in the north of the state of Aguascalientes, and its old hacienda has a moment of national drama attached to it. In January 1811, after the insurgent army of Miguel Hidalgo was routed by royalist forces at the Battle of Puente de Calderón near Guadalajara, the retreating leaders met here, at the Hacienda de San Blas de Pabellón. Exhausted and defeated, they stripped Hidalgo of his military command and handed it to Ignacio Allende, who had long resented the priest's leadership. A few weeks later both were captured in the north, and by the summer both had been executed. The War of Independence would go on for another decade without them.
The hacienda buildings, with their thick adobe walls, a chapel and a courtyard, now house a museum of the insurgency, and the whole complex counts as one of the inscribed sites of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the royal road that ran from Mexico City north to Santa Fe in New Mexico, carrying silver, goods and settlers for three centuries. Haciendas like this one were waypoints and economic hubs, with farms, ranches and workshops supporting traffic on the road.
The landscape is high and dry, nearly two thousand metres above sea level, with open plains of grass and scrub, fields of maize and chilli and, on the horizon, low ranges of hills. Aguascalientes is known for its hot springs, as the name suggests, and for its guava orchards in the Calvillo area to the west. The state capital, also called Aguascalientes, hosts the Feria de San Marcos every spring, one of the biggest fairs in Mexico.
The riding here is mostly highway, on the fast toll and free roads that run north towards Zacatecas, with long straight stretches, trucks and buses, and the occasional speed bump, or tope, appearing without warning in villages. Topes are the great hazard of Mexican roads; watch for them everywhere. For supplies, Rincón de Romos is six kilometres up the road, with Pemex and other fuel stations, taquerías and shops. Try the birria, a rich stew of goat or beef, and the local guava sweets. Afternoon thunderstorms are common in the summer rainy season.