Máncora, Peru – South 04deg06’18.5” West 081deg03’21.8”

“Allo, mai friend, where you from? United States? Oh, I live there, 3 years, in Alaska. Where you live?”

As far as broken English conversations go, this one was pretty normal. A skinny Colombian man named Kenny had approached us on the sandy beach of northern Perú trying to get us to come into his “delicious Colombian restaurant.” I did my best not to commit to conversation…we continued walking, avoided eye contact, etc. But his last question stopped my mind in its tracks. In his less than perfect English, he had asked me “where do you live?” and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t have a response for him. I haven’t lived in Ohio for 2-plus years, and my home in Bolivia has recently been snatched away and I am now actually, for the first time in my life, homeless. Of course I know I always have a place in Cincy, but I am currently without any place to call my own. And that is an incredibly liberating feeling. Writing about it here brings the huge smile back to my face.

The hair in all its glory. Please note similarities with Jesus mural on the bus behind me

This is our fourth night on the beach in Máncora, Peru. And when I say on the beach, I really mean on the beach. We found a hostel whose foyer is made of sand. From the front “door,” one can spit in the ocean at high tide. No lie. The constant crashing of the waves is incredibly soothing, especially at night and in the mornings. Our days have consisted mainly of getting up early, having some coffee on the beach, walking on the beach, napping on the beach, playing in the thundering waves, eating delicious seafood on the beach, napping again on the beach (this time in a hammock), maybe reading a little on the beach, heading a few blocks inland to find some dinner, then back out here to the beach for hookah smoking, beer consumption, great music and excellent people. It’s true, one of my fellow ex-volunteers has brought an entire hookah along with him and we are all very thankful for that, it’s a fantastic way to share the evening with a big group of folks. We are eleven people from all different places and from all different groups in Bolivia. My friend Naya and I were in our third years as volunteers, others had been in a year or so, and one of us had only been in country for about 8 months. It’s a great mix of PCV personalities.

Beach jogging with Anna & Emily


Tom and I catching some waves

Hitting the Hookah

Currently as I type this we are seated around the hookah and a few people have expressed interest in being contributing writers to The Story of Ben…so here are some thoughts from a few friends:

Hey Ranza Ganzas and friends, I’m a friend of Joseph Ben Ranz, name is Anna. I’m a big fan of Ben and his company for the following reasons: Ben has great hair. Better than it’s ever been in all his life, I’m sure. Ben makes super, very good French toast. Ben bathes more than the average peace corps volunteer, but he doesn’t mind when we smell. Ben asks good questions. Ben is a good man. I’m glad he’s my friend. –Anna from Charlottesville, Virginia (see "Fun With Tom & Anna" link on the left)

Hi everybody! I’m a friendly Hoosier and fellow ex-volunteer with li’l Ben. If it weren’t for the beach, the transition back to the US of A would be even more difficult. But here we are, enjoying each other’s company, the wonderful Peruvian sun, and the freedom of short-term unemployment! –Emily from Goshen, Indiana

So long and thanks for all the hard work. Good luck deciding what your life will consist of during the next two days. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here… So where else would we go to figure out the rest of lives, or at least the next step, than to the best beach on the Pacific side of the lovely South American continent. Here we are soaking up the sun like Sheryl Crow and relaxing in a hammock and listening to waves crash on shore to clear our minds. One step closer to the answer and much less worried about what that may eventually be. Chowabunga dudes! –George from Gary, Indiana

Hello Ohio!!!!!! This is Naya aka The Little Mexican (as Ben likes to call me). Just wanted to give a shout out to the state that the Mr. Ranz comes from. Cute lil’ story about Ben and I, he is the first ever mid-westerner I have met. Yes, it was 2.5 years ago that we met in that fateful Miami hotel as we started our adventure to Bolivia. He was the first volunteer as well that I had met and oh what a ride it has been. We now part ways on this oh so sweet beach town finally going our separate ways. A quick shout out to Coleman, it was a pleasure meeting you and hopefully I’ll see the Bens again live and in action in Ohio one day. Good night and good luck! -Naya from Ventura, California

That was just a small sampling of the excellent crew of people with whom I have crossed paths over the past 2.5 years or so. It truly has been a pleasure to share this Peace Corps experience with such excellent folks. I look forward to staying in touch and going to visit them at their homes of record as well as enjoying their company in Cincy for perhaps a Christmas tree bonfire or a Harvest Home Parade. You are always welcome.

Jump Photos!




I truly can’t remember the last time I swam in the ocean. The last few times I’ve been on the beach it’s been in Oregon or without a bathing suit…not very suited for swimming. I honestly think the last time was when I was in Ecuador back in summer 2002. Well, whenever it was, suffice to say that it has been far too long and I don’t intend on going that long again. We came this far north to escape the cold and cloudy beaches of southern Peru and it was well worth the 16 hour bus ride. It’s hot and sunny during the day, perfect for swimming and cool at night, just enough that you want a sweatshirt but you’re not shivering. The ocean is incredibly refreshing…I almost forgot that it was going to be salty. We’ve spent hours battling the waves and mostly losing. It’s a good workout and wears you out so that afternoon nap is all the more satisfying, especially with the ocean spray falling over you. We’ve also managed to get a few beach runs in. Jogging is something else that I haven’t managed to do in a long time. So it’s been a trip of relaxing, tanning and enjoying. Needless to say, I am super contento.

It is with a bit of sadness that I report that we will probably be shoving on tomorrow, along to the next adventure in what will probably become a long string of them. We are looking to head south to a town called Huaraz, which lies high in the mountains of central Peru. There is excellent trekking and beautiful views of snowcapped mountains all around. So that’s what we’ll probably do. But the beauty of all of this (as my friends alluded to above) is that there are no real decisions to make or deadlines to worry about. We are free in every sense of the word, free to do whatever we please, to travel wherever we please, answer to no one but ourselves. Cheers.

Group shot

Some beach shots:





Some random shots:
Tiny shadows...we are near the equator

Some lovely ladies...

Raw fish anyone? This is a Peruvian delicacy called ceviche...uncooked fish soaked in lime juice...delicious!

And that's that.

Well, it has been quite the wild ride for the past few weeks. In just about one big long fell swoop, I arrived back to Bolivia from a relaxing three weeks of home-leave in the states, returned to Hardeman and the surrounding jungles to do some well drilling, left the jungle to collect a new volunteer that was coming to Hardeman, but never made it back. The day we were supposed to return to Hardeman from Santa Cruz city, poltically charged violent protests and demonstrations erupted in the city, motivating the Peace Corps to consolidate the few of us who were currently in the city. This was not an un-precedented move, and the small group of us made our way to a hotel thinking we'd have a few relaxing days by the pool and be back to our sites by the end of the week.

That was a week and a half ago. I sit here now in Perú, no longer a Peace Corps volunteer. Three days later they made the decision to evacuate all 113 volunteers to neighboring Perú. The situation remained tense in Santa Cruz while we were at the hotel, and grew increasingly violent in the usually-calm department of Pando, on the northern tip of Bolivia. A group of 30 campensinos were making their way towards the capital city of Cobija when they were supposedly slaughtered by opposition supporters. It was reported that machine guns were used. Here is a link to a blog that talks more about what has happened and what may happen. This guy is a little biased but generally pretty accurate. If you have time, read this entry and the few entries afterwards. In addition to the civil unrest within the country, the situation was not helped when Bolivian president Evo Morales expelled the American Ambassador from the country, claiming he supported and helped plan the violent protests and demonstrations. Trigger-happy Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez quickly followed suit and kicked out their ambassador as well. The violence combined with the political issues and the increasingly declining state of affairs in Bolivia made our evacuation not unbelieveable, but shocking nonetheless.

On Monday the 15th, we climbed aboard a US donated C-130 cargo plane to make our way to Lima, Perú. It was quite the interesting flight experience...needless to say there was no in-flight movie, but we did get to see the cockpit during the flight. Imagine my surprise when the pilot looked back at me and said in perfect english "Do you like movies about gladiators?"

Some shots of the plane:



Safe on the ground in Perú.



After a quick orientation and welcome by the Peace Corps Perú folks and the embassy, we made our way to our new digs. They were putting us up at a "resort" which was about 40 minutes inland from the coastal city of Lima. Before we boarded the plane, our Country Director informed us that Peace Corps Washington had temporarily suspended the program in Bolivia, meaning that it was extremely unlikely that any of us would be returning there as volunteers. So the mood of the group was pretty grim. Almost none of us had the chance to say goodbye to people in our towns and almost everyone left unfinished work and committments. The fact that we weren't going to be able to return was really bringing everyone down.

Over the next week, a group of folks from Washington came down to facilitate everyone's next steps. There were opportunities to transfer to other countries, wait out the situation in Bolivia, end your service with the chance of re-enrolling with preferred status, or simply ending your service. It was a very hectic and stressful few days for us, trying to make these decisions. When you join the Peace Corps, the selection and placement process usually takes months, for me it was over a year. Now people needed to decide where to go and what to do essentially in a matter of hours.

As for me, I had a pretty easy decision. Since I had just started my third year as a volunteer leader, I was lucky enough to be able to finish my service, say goodbye to people in my site and get some closure on things. I was definitely planning on going back, but I had a much better situation than most. Although there was an opportunity to stay on in Peru as a third year Basic Sanitation volunteer leader, I opted to finish my time with the Peace Corps and move on to the next big thing, although I am still working on figuring that out yet. I would really love for it to involve a couple months back home on the West Side living the Ohio life.

Needless to say, it has been a fairly shocking couple of weeks. We have been consolidated before and they always tell us to be ready for anything, but problems ALWAYS die down and life goes back to normal after a couple of days. Consolidations and the activation of our "emergency action plan" were always more of hassle than anything we worried about. No one ever thought that this would actually happen. But here we are, no longer volunteers and all headed in our different directions.

As for me, I am planning on doing a bit of traveling here around Perú, return to Bolivia to say a proper goodbye and leave as much of my work in capable hands as is possible, do some more traveling around Argentina and then try and make it home by early November to enjoy a little bit of what autumn in Ohio has to offer. I will do my best to keep the blog updated better with travel stories and awesome pictures. This afternoon we are getting on a bus bound for a beach town to get tan for a while and try my hand at surfing with a group of friends. Until next time, signing off.