I have lived in earthquake zones in California for most of my life. I have felt many quakes in that time, including the Loma Prieta quake of 1989 that did major damage in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Tonight, sitting in my office in Cuenca, Ecuador, I felt the chair start to rock.  I paused the Photoshop video I was watching, and then the computer monitor started rocking.  I glanced over and saw the cactus in the corner of the office swaying.

We were having an earthquake here in Cuenca!  I had traveled  3953 miles and still wasn’t free of these little rock ‘n roll fun rides…

When in California, I could check a USGS website and see the details of the quake within 3 or 4 minutes of the event.  I did a Google search for recent quakes in Ecuador, and then checked the site.  Nada…?  20 minutes later it showed up.  Things always move a little slower down here…

The quake was magnitude 5.5, occurring 19.6 km (12 miles) below the surface, occurring 24 km (15 miles) SW of Zorritos, Peru — just over the border with Ecuador.

No damage, but it made me wonder for a bit if I had really left California at all…☺

Update!

I went out to run some errands Monday morning and found our street blocked off.  Next door there were workmen putting up a scaffold.  Looking up, I realized that a decorative part of the roof had collapsed on our neighbor’s house.  It almost certainly was a result of the quake Sunday morning.  The photo at the top of this post shows a neighbor on her balcony as she looks over at the workmen.  Behind the upper man, you can see the piece of the roof that broke off.

Here is a wider view from the street. The taller building in the background (with our DirecTV dish on the roof) is our building. You can just see the broken roof piece sitting on the house between us.

Here is a view from our living room window. You can just make out the broken decorative piece, indicated by the red arrow.