Where to photograph Quito, and at what hour
The light here behaves differently from anywhere you have shot before. You are on the equator at 2,850 metres, which means brutal contrast at midday, a golden hour that is not an hour, and a reliable daily pattern that decides for you when to be where. Learn the pattern and this becomes one of the most photogenic cities in the Americas.
The short version
- Mornings are clear, afternoons cloud over. Volcanoes before ten, city any time.
- Golden hour lasts about twenty minutes. On the equator the sun drops straight down. Be in position early.
- Itchimbía at sunrise, El Panecillo at sunset. If you do only two, do those.
- Sunrise is around 06:30 and sunset around 18:30 — every day of the year.
- Do not walk around the Old Town with a large camera hanging off you. See below.
Three things that govern light in Quito
The day never changes length. Sunrise at about half past six, sunset at about half past six, in January exactly as in July. There is no summer evening light and no winter gloom. Whatever month you come, your shooting window is the same twelve hours.
The twilight is short. This is the one that catches photographers out. At high latitudes the sun sets at an angle and slides along the horizon, giving you a long, generous golden hour. On the equator it drops almost perpendicular. From the first good light to full dark is roughly twenty to twenty-five minutes. Be set up, framed and metered before it starts, because you will not get a second run at it.
Mornings are clear and afternoons are not. Cloud builds through the morning almost every day. If you want Cotopaxi or Cayambe on the horizon, you need to be shooting before about ten. By noon the mountains are usually gone and the city is under flat cloud — which is, incidentally, excellent for shooting facades and street detail without blown highlights.
The six viewpoints, with the right hour
Itchimbía — sunrise
A hill park immediately east of the Old Town, crowned by the Palacio de Cristal, a glass-and-steel structure that makes a striking foreground against the colonial grid below.
Because it sits east of the centre, the rising sun is behind you and lights the Old Town fully — domes, towers and tiled roofs, with Pichincha behind. This is the best morning shot in Quito and it is usually empty at that hour. Ten minutes from our door by taxi.
El Panecillo — late afternoon and blue hour
The rounded hill at 3,000 m that closes the southern end of the Old Town, topped by the winged Virgin. From up here you get the full sweep: the historic centre in the foreground, modern Quito running north up the valley, mountains on both sides.
Late afternoon light rakes across the facades. Then stay: after dark the church domes are lit and the city becomes a field of lights in a valley. Have your taxi wait.
The Basílica towers — mid-morning
Not a distant view but an aerial one, from inside the Old Town rather than above it. The wooden walkway over the nave, the exposed ladders and the clock towers give you angles nobody gets from the ground, plus the gargoyles carved as Galápagos tortoises and iguanas. Mid-morning, when the light is high enough to reach into the streets below. Details in which churches are worth the ticket.
Cruz Loma, top of the TelefériQo — first cable car
At 4,000 m, looking east over the entire city with the Andes behind. This is the wide, atmospheric, layered-cloud shot. Take the first car of the day; by eleven you are usually inside the cloud rather than above it. See TelefériQo and Rucu Pichincha, and note the altitude warning there.
Guápulo — late afternoon
A colonial church and a village of steep lanes tucked into a ravine on the eastern edge of the city, with the valley opening below it. Very few visitors, excellent light in the second half of the day, and a viewpoint above it that looks straight down onto the church roof.
Plaza San Francisco — any hour, but especially early
The great open square of the Old Town. At seven in the morning it belongs to pigeons and people going to work, and the low sun comes across the flagstones. By eleven it is full. Both versions are worth shooting; only one of them is quiet.
El Panecillo, in more detail
Worth knowing what you are photographing.
The hill was Shungoloma to the Incas — "hill of the heart" — and a site of sun worship long before the Spanish put a fortress on it. The statue on top, completed in 1975, is a 41-metre aluminium reconstruction of a small wooden sculpture carved in 1734 by Bernardo de Legarda, one of the great artists of the Quito School.
Two things surprise people. First, it is the tallest aluminium statue in the world, and three metres taller than Christ the Redeemer in Rio. Second, the Virgin has wings — an apocalyptic Virgin, standing on a globe with a chained serpent underfoot, which is unusual iconography and specifically Quiteña.
Access to the hill and the plaza is free. There is a small charge, on the order of a dollar, to go inside the base — a little museum and a stair up to a viewing platform. Hours are roughly nine to five, so the interior closes before the best light; the outdoor viewpoint does not.
Take a taxi up and have it wait, or arrange a return. Do not walk up the stairs from the Old Town regardless of what a map suggests. The hill itself is patrolled and busy by day; the approach is not.
Street level
- Calle García Moreno, the "street of the seven crosses" — a straight colonial run with churches stacked down it. Best in the morning when the light comes along the street rather than across it.
- La Ronda after dark — narrow, lit, colour on the walls, people. A tripod is awkward here; a fast lens is better.
- The markets — the best faces and colour in the city. Ask before photographing people. Most will say yes.
- San Blas and Calle Antepara, on our own doorstep — ordinary, unposed, working Quito, which is often what you actually want.
Technical notes for 2,850 m
- The contrast is savage at midday. Thin air scatters less light, so shadows go black and highlights blow. Shoot early and late; use the middle of the day for interiors and markets.
- Haze on the mountains builds with the cloud. A polariser earns its place here more than at sea level.
- Rain arrives in the afternoon and arrives fast. Carry a bag that closes.
- Cold at the viewpoints. El Panecillo at 3,000 m and Cruz Loma at 4,000 m are much colder than the street. Batteries drain faster in cold; carry spares warm.
- Condensation going from cold high viewpoints into warm interiors, and in Mindo's cloud forest. Let the lens acclimatise inside the bag.
- Sensor dust on volcanic sand at Cotopaxi and Quilotoa. Change lenses inside the vehicle, or not at all.
About carrying a camera here
Visible professional camera gear attracts attention, in Quito as in any large city. This does not mean leaving it in the room; it means being deliberate.
Carry it in an unremarkable bag rather than a branded one, take it out when you are shooting and put it away when you are walking, and stay aware of who is around you at the moment you are looking through a viewfinder — which is exactly when you are not aware of anything else. Around the main plazas and viewpoints in daylight this is comfortable. At dawn on an empty hill, take a companion or a taxi that waits.
Our fuller view is in is Quito safe. The short version: the risk here is theft, not confrontation, and being obviously absorbed is what makes a target.
A one-day photographic circuit
- 05:45Taxi to Itchimbía. Set up before the light.
- 07:30Down into the Old Town. Plaza San Francisco while it is still quiet.
- 09:30Basílica towers, mid-morning light in the streets below.
- 11:30Markets and interiors while the cloud is flat overhead.
- 14:00Lunch. Rain, probably.
- 16:30Taxi to El Panecillo. Raking light on the Old Town.
- 18:15Twenty minutes of gold, then blue hour and the lit domes.
- 19:30La Ronda, handheld, fast lens.
Add Cruz Loma on a second morning if the sky is clear, and Guápulo on a second afternoon.
What we do here
We will call you a taxi at half past five in the morning and have coffee ready before you go, which is not a thing most places will do. Reception can tell you what the sky is doing and whether the mountains are out — a two-minute conversation that decides whether Cruz Loma is worth the ticket today. And San Blas is a ten-minute walk from most of the above, which is the actual reason to be based here.
Be in position before the light is
Nine rooms in a restored 1914 house on the quiet edge of the Old Town. Book direct for our lowest rate, and tell us if you want an early taxi and a thermos.
See our best dealsTake the circuit with you
Useful at half past five in the morning, when you are not thinking clearly.
