Volcano avenue – This route included: some exhilarating and nervous moments passing through closed Cotopaxi volcano National Park via a back route and some private property; enduring hailstorms, fording streams and hiking through mud on the north side of Ecuador’s highest peak Chimborazo (which I resolved to return and climb); and following some manmade water channels by a somewhat treacherous drop off (real heart in the mouth moments). All part of the norm crossing Ecuador’s mountains