Latacunga, Ecuador is a city that lives and dies with Cotopaxi, the volcano it is built next to. The volcano has blessed the surrounding soil with nutrients and a constant flow of glacial ice melt provides fresh water. But when the volcano erupts it will destroy the city. Three times in recorded history Cotopaxi has leveled the city but each time the city is rebuilt. In fact, it is literally rebuilt with the instrument of it's destruction. Latacunga City Hall is the only municipal building in the world built from pumice--a stone formed by cooling lava.
