Sea therapy attracts ailing patients

They arrive at Lima's coast shortly before dawn and wade into the Pacific Ocean, seeking relief from ailments doctors have been unable to cure.

Some come in groups, jumping, laughing and running along the shore. Others bathe alone silently in the calm, gray sea.

Under overcast skies at Playa de Pescadores, or Fishermen's Beach, the bathers practice thalassotherapy, which derives from the Greek thalasso, for sea, and draws on the ocean's healing properties.