Cotopaxi mountain, Ecuador - It was June 1877 and summer in the Sierra. The dry, Andean wind carried specks of ash that sprinkled down upon the sprawling haciendas and lush swaths of green pastures as hundreds of farm animals grazed at the foot of Cotopaxi, one of the world's highest active volcanoes.

Since the beginning of the year, the majestic snow capped summit, standing at more than 5,800 metres, had belched out small puffs of smoke and ash.
In the capital, Quito, the churches were silent and the doors remained locked.
It was an unusual time for the city. The interim head of the church had been forced into exile by the military dictator, General Ignacio de Veintemilla, who people suspected of murdering the Archbishop of Quito by lacing his chalice of wine with poison during the Good Friday prayers. 
Residents of Quito shunned and feared him. A year before, the general had ridden to power through a violent coup and a three-month civil war with forces loyal to the deposed president, Antonio Borrero.

The streets of Quito were as turbulent as the skies above, which were slowly turning black and pouring a "rain of ash". 
The last big eruption
Then, on the morning of June 26, Cotopaxi convulsed. A major eruption shook the ground beneath it. Torrents of water, hot gas and rock poured down, destroying factories and farmland, villages and small towns. An avalanche of mud filled nearby rivers, bursting their banks.
It took just over 30 minutes for the debris to reach the nearest town, Latacunga. Within 18 hours it had travelled west, reaching the Pacific coast.

Although Quito was spared the devastation, it was shrouded in complete darkness and the entire city was coated in a fine layer of ash.
"The inhabitants of Quito were shocked to know that, besides the deaths produced by the clashes with the dictatorship's army, many people had died because of the mud slides that covered the central area of Los Chillos Valley, where rich families had their haciendas," Gonzalo Ortiz, an Ecuadorian writer and historian,