A few days after we arrived at Joe’s and Marie’s house, the furniture store next door caught on fire and we had an EIGHT alarm fire two buildings away from Joe/Marie’s house.
Joe and Megan has gone out to walk their dog and Joe arrived back rather quickly saying, “Fire next door, get important papers and leave the house ASAP!”
We were out of the house with our luggage in less than five minutes. We were standing on the LEFT side of the photo with all our luggage on the sidewalk. Since I was wearing my camera equipment, I just started taking pictures.
The Cuenca Fire Department arrived within FIVE minutes and the fire was effectively extinguished within 10-15 minutes.
The Cuenca Fire Department arrived, then the large water tanker and then the volunteer fire department. Their fire trucks and fire-fighting equipment seemed quite new and the firemen all seemed very well equipped and quite well trained. I was impressed.
I talked to the neighbor next door (who had lived in Toronto, Canada for 17 years) and he said that the furniture company had been manufacturing furniture without the correct permit, had no fire extinguisher, etc. and therefore the insurance company was not going to pay for the damage caused by the fire.
Our trip back from Tumbes, Peru to Cuenca, Ecuador was a sequence of wonderful timing.
We finally succeeded in obtaining new three month multi-entry Ecuadorian visa in Tumbes.
For weeks, I’ve been staring at a similar weather forecast – rain, rain and more rain. However, that has not been our experience here in Cuenca, Ecuador!
One thing that we realized upon our return to Cuenca was that we all were scratching very itchy mosquito bites. We had used mosquito nets while sleeping in Loja, but we, nevertheless, were all bitten multiple times.
For you all who want additional information regarding living in Ecuador, I recommend Lori’s blog, 
