It's our first trip to Mexico City. This is where it all starts. The clinic we are working with is about a 15-20 minute drive without traffic. That's hard to come by here. We arrived late Saturday night so we basically just went straight to the hotel - Room Mate Valentina. Sunday was basically our free day. We walked around the area we were staying. It was pretty cool. They closed down the main thoroughfare to cars and it was open to bicycles and pedestrians only until around late afternoon. The first picture is of The Angel of Independence.
This next picture is what I believe to be a TV news crew shooting a standup. We didn't stick around long enough to find out for sure.
This is Scott and I suited up for a quick tour of the lab.
There was an embryologist getting things prepared to do a procedure for the doctor to implant embryos. We were not able to stick around for that. We did see current samples of various stages of embryos via a new device called Primovision. It's where they have the little newly formed embryo under a camera/microscope that takes magnified pictures every 30 seconds or so, so doctors can watch the cell division and choose the strongest to implant in the surrogate. It's actually really interesting to watch.
Like I said, Monday was a big day. So after a few hours at the clinic, we were driven back to the hotel. In that time at the hotel waiting for a meet and greet for later on, the World Cup was on with a match between Mexico and Croatia. Mexico ended up winning towards the end with three goals - with what seemed to be one right after the other. It was pretty exciting to be right in the heart of the country that won this particular match! Our window to our hotel room was open at the time and all of the bars and restaurants and just about every place that had a tv was tuned in to the match. We heard the roaring cheers each time Mexico scored a goal. Soon after the game, we hear commotion (celebratory) outside and see these "patty wagons" ready to go - you know, just in case. There were more across the street but I couldn't take a picture of all of them because the streets were crazy. Our meet and greet was at a different hotel so we make our way from our hotel and we pass through the boisterous crowded streets and a TON of police in riot gear barricading the street to get to The Angel of Independence statue with only a small pathway. I guess to regulate how many people get through? In any case, we moved it along as fast as possible to get past all that mess. Tuned out to be a nice and "quiet" night with no violence that we heard or saw. Seemed as though everyone behaved for the most part.
Tuesday was sperm donation day at the clinic. I only had to do it since Scott's sample is being shipped over from a previous attempt at a different clinic. We were scheduled with the other couple in the morning. We all ended spending the rest of the day together at a mall recommended to us by one of the doctors at the clinic. Why not, since we didn't really have anything planned so we killed some time walking around. With no ride back to our hotels we thought we were close to them. Wrong. We ended walking about three miles back to our hotels. So we really got to see parts of Mexico City you wouldn't normally see by driving. Though we did have to cross major streets. That was a bit of an adventure. We finally made it back ok. I guess the walking was good. Got to work off some of the lunch and gelato we had earlier. Thankfully it didn't rain as well while we were walking. Otherwise, we would have hailed a cab pronto. The rain here is no joke. You get it all. Pouring rain, LOUD thunder, lighting.
One more trip in the morning to the clinic for another round of samples and then it's straight to the airport for our flight home. Hopefully the next time we are here in Mexico City, it won't just be Scott and I. Fingers crossed!
