Floods, Volcanos, Wars and Flowers

Confusing title???? A few blogs ago we talked about some danger of going into Ecuador because of floods, and a volcano close to Baños, a town that we wish to visit. It seems these dangers have lessened as the rains have calmed and there are no red alerts in the areas surrounding the Volcano.
But, there has been an incident that is causing us other concerns. A few days ago, the Colombian Army entered Ecuadorian territory, without the permission of the Ecuadorian government, to kill a leader of the FARC, the rebel group in Colombia and 15 other FARC soldiers. They were successful but needless to say and rightfully so, the Ecuadorian government, was most indignant and pulled their ambassador from Colombia and has moved some troops to the border.
This in itself is not a huge problem, as for Ecuador to invade Colombia is something akin to Canada invading the US, as Ecuador is very small and has a military to match. The Colombian military is huge, well equpped, and well trained, thanks in part to Plan Colombia, a huge US funded program to try to eliminate the coco production in Colombia.
But what is worrying, is along the border of Colombia that it shares with Venezuela. The ruler of Venezuela, Chavez, is a bit of a loose cannon, and along that border, the rumor is, he openly allows sanctuary for the soldiers of FARC in his country. He also has a big mouth and has threatened to go to war with Colombia if Colombian soldiers dare set foot on his territory and he has moved 6000 Venezuelan soldiers to this border. Things are a bit tense in Colombia, as no one knows for sure exactly what he will do and everyone hopes that cooler heads will prevail and life will just go on.
We have no photos of the floods or the volcano or the war so instead we offer you these photos of beautiful flowers that we have stopped to smell along the way and from a country whose people match the beauty of the flowers.