Traveling is always a beautiful journey, and I love observing cultures, and how they express their ways of life. I try to keep that attitude when I’m flying for business.

One of the precious things of traveling is connecting with nature and the people who work the land. I’ve had moments that I will relish for the rest of my life. I really do try to keep that attitude. Otherwise, I’d love to be home in Oakland, Calif., since there’s always so much to do there. I mean, really, Oakland is great. You never have to leave that town. But I’d miss out on so much.

I’ve always had an interest in photography. For the past three years, I’ve taken thousands of photographs of the earth from the windows of airplanes. The photos are like abstract pieces of art. Nature has no straight lines, which is a great juxtaposition against the hard lines of our modern architecture and, I suppose, our lives.

I’m not a nervous flier. But last year, I was on a flight that was trying to take off from a small village in the Amazon of Ecuador. I’ll admit it. I got nervous.

The airport consisted of a long dirt runway. All the flights scheduled that day were canceled because of heavy rains. Eventually the rain stopped for a couple of hours and a six-seater landed. The plan was for me to get on this plane, but first it had to be loaded with food stuffs and other goods that were going to another village.

The runway was short and ended in the rain forest, so if the plane couldn’t lift its nose because of the heavy load and soaked earth, we’d end up in the middle of the jungle. I got more nervous when I and the few other passengers heard the pilot praying.

The plane got to the end of the runway. It was going pretty fast, but its weight and the dampness were making flight near impossible. But we’d gone past the point of no return, so the pilot went full throttle. If I didn’t know better, the rain forest monkeys and birds were pushing us up. It was frightening beyond belief as we went deeper into the thick, gray clouds, not sure we were going to clear the forest.

All I could think of was what it would be like to crash into the jungle. I didn’t like the thought. By the time we landed safely an hour later, I truly felt blessed to be in one piece.

I really love traveling overseas. You never know what you’ll find. One of my best business travel memories was a trip to China when I discovered a source for organic pu-erh, an ancient healing tea picked from 500-year-old wild tea trees in the mountains of Yunnan, China.

While I was there, a devastating earthquake hit China, making travel difficult. But I discovered this pristine tea garden lovingly tended for generations by the local citizens. It was an incredible find, and from that trip the company now can offer pu-erh teas in the United States market that are organic and fair labor.

But traveling with loose tea or pu-erh bricks does alert security. More than once, the agents asked jokingly, I hope, if you can smoke the stuff. The answer is no.

By Ahmed Rahim, as told to Joan Raymond. E-mail: joan.raymond@nytimes.com.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/business/in-the-air-with-the-chief-of-numi-organic-teas.html?partner=rss&emc=rss