Peruvians swim in Pacific to evade pandemic stress

The dark early morning sky turns blue when dozens of Peruvians arrive for a swim to temporarily escape stress at time when the South American nation is facing its second wave of COVID-19 infections.

To escape from the negative news of the daily coronavirus death tolls and infections, they turn to the cold waters of the ocean to swim.

"We don't stop hearing bad news daily. And this is why we need to escape a bit even if it's one hour, hour and a half," said 54-year José Echeandía.

Peru was one of the worst-hit in the region during 2020 and is now experiencing a resurgence in cases. The country of 32.5 million people is seeing a death every five minutes from the coronavirus, according to official data.

A shortage of medical supplies, including oxygen, and lack of protective equipment at hospitals across the country has affected the mental health of doctors.

Many swimmers have been coming for decades as they have been doing so since they were children, if have a car or live nearby and can pay for water sports lessons.

Such water sports are more popular among Peru's middle- and upper-class sectors who have the discretionary income to pay for wetsuits that can cost several hundred dollars.

Before the pandemic, lower income Peruvians also came to Pescadores beach to sit on the sand but such activities are prohibited by law now in order to avoid crowds.

The pandemic has increased the number of swimmers in the Pacific, says Víctor Solís, a 47-year-old swimming teacher.

"Before the pandemic, there were about a thousand swimmers a day, now there are about five thousand, he says.

In part, swimmers have increased because the nationwide ban on going to pools has been in force for the past 13 months.

Swimming in the open sea allows Lorena Choy, 43, to relax, de-stress and see her friends. She's been swimming since she was a child in a pool but because of the prohibitions, she now swims in the sea.

"It helps you a lot psychologically," she said.

Peru currently has more than 1.7 million cases of coronavirus and has reported 60,013 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.