1

Sucre is certainly a prettier place to adjust to the altitude! Though by that same token you may face a steeper adjustment curve in going up to the altiplano--some parts of the SW Circuit go well over 15,000 ft.

I would base my decision on how well you adjusted to your time in Cuzco, which is closer to La Paz's tourist district in elevation than it is to Sucre. I would also take into consideration the things you plan on doing immediately after your Salar/SW tour. The SW is very rough and the tour is exhausting (but rewarding!), so I recommend you plan on giving yourself some relaxing "oasis" time afterwards. My wife and I went to Sucre right after our Salar trip and found it extraordinarily restful, though we might have felt the same way about, say, Coroico if we'd headed straight to the Yungas.

Hope that's helpful.

2

11 days is hardly enough to get a propper acclimatization anyway, but for sure 2 days in Sucre is preferable.
I suggest going to Potosi for a day or two after, then SW Circuit. Diamox can be helpful, have it on hand and don't forget about coca leaves!

3

Not ideal indeed, but still better than going directly to SE Circuit that is in parts over 5000m

4

"...in parts over 5000m..."

i.e. max altitude , not sleeping altitude . With OP´s planned several nights at Sucre first max altitude is an opportunity to acclimatize better , not a crisis.

Going too fast to sleeping elevations above 4000 is worse than higher max elevations since

a) oxygen content in the blood dips at night , from the horizontal position
b) it means low O2 content for a lot longer period than crossing passes
c) on road trips the cure for max elevations symptoms is included : descent.

See for example the safety regs for Chajnantor Observatory : astronomers travel on a regular basis from below Sucre´s altitude up to 5000+ in a single day , which works out ok when being put on continous O2 after arriving .

5

Sleeping altitude at Laguna Colorada, which is part of every multi-day Salar tour I know of, is 4,278 meters. Uyuni itself is at ~4000 meters. Which is just to say that the OP will be dealing with a rapid ascent and sleeping at altitude either way.

6

Uyuni : just below 3700 .

7

True, max sleeping altitude on the tour would be similar to Potosi at about 4000m

8

Sucre is very pleasant, and if you can arrange your itinerary to stay there first, I would do that. I started in La Paz and was OK unless I was trying to walk uphill :)

9

We did just that, coming from sea level (S.Cruz, 400 mts I think).
We stayed 2 nights in Sucre, 1 in Potosì, 1 in Tupiza before starting the SW circuit tour.

Not ideal, but we had time and other constraints which didn't allow us to do things much differently (we were of course careful and open to the possibility of just changing our tour alltogether once there, if necessary).

We were all (4 of us) hit by altitude sickness (in various degrees) in Sucre, which we actually did not expect (we were anticipating problems in Potosì, thought Sucre would be a slight headhache at most).
We spent most of the 2 days there resting and did very little, but felt fine after that, apart from the occasional headhache when going over a pass during the circuit and not being able to do much physical activity in general
(apart from our youngest son, who was the least affected and spent the whole afternoon in Potosì playing football with other kids ;-)

10

Interesting every time you see altitude sickness below 3000. CDC suggests medicating when making a first stop at 2800+ , and every time you mention that there is no end of the comments on how neurotic that would be ..

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