Pululahua in Ecuador is the only inhabited and cultivated volcano in the world. While Pululhua Volcano – not far from Ecuador’s capital city, Quito – hasn’t erupted in 2,500 years, it left behind a doozy of a legacy: A giant caldera full of fertile soil and a wealth of fog that keeps vegetation lush. At 13 square miles, it’s a remarkably ample crater with a central lava dome rising 1,600 feet skyward that plays home to unique cloud-forest-loving orchids and other unique plants. The whole area became protected as a geobotanical reserve in 1978 and was later declared a national park.

From the rim of Ecuador's Pululahua Geobotanical Reserve, it's at least a 45-minute drive (no, more like plunge) down a winding, bone-crushing dirt road to the floor of the crater. But it's well worth it. After all, how often do you get to say you've traveled to what's billed as the world's only inhabited, cultivated volcano?

People living in towns and villages near the volcano, which has destroyed their way of life by coating their crops and pasture lands with ash, do not see it as picturesque.

Eric Smeith is a dairy farmer in Galatea, in the Bay of Plenty. He’s lived there all his life and has watched the impact that hot and dry summers can have on agriculture. But he has also noticed something else: whenever power lines or water pipes have to be dug into the soil, the pasture growing on the newly mixed top soil is usually much greener.

Fertile soil, comfortable climate, good views, and an easy commute are factors people consider when determining where to live. If the benefits are attractive enough, they often outweigh the costs—including risks from natural hazards—as demonstrated by the sheer numbers of people living near fault lines and along frequently storm-buffeted coasts.