We made our way back to Lukla in one day, as opposed to the 2 days it took in the opposite direction. Along the way we passed many trekking groups and porters loaded with their gear. I was amazed at the amount of people (many of them were of the retired folks age) that were making the trip to Everest Base Camp. Hats off to them and hope that I am still exploring at that age!!
The porters' heavy loads:
Family working the fields before reaching Lukla:
Below are some statistics of how tourism was affected by the political changes in Nepal, including the massacre of the King in 2001 and the Maoist war for power afterwards. But as you can see, the tourist have since returned in big numbers.
Instead of spending the night in Lukla and deal with the chaos of the crowded morning flights, I decided to take a return flight back to Kathmandu that afternoon. There were only 3 of us on the plane, so it was a nice and easy trip back!
Landing in Kathmandu:
