Micato Safari Directors

Our Chief Health and Safety Officers and Safari Team Leaders

Every Micato safari is accompanied by one of our highly-credentialed Micato Safari Directors who accompanies you exclusively in each country throughout your trip. This is very different from other companies who rely on a random assortment of shared drivers and guides, provided by camps and lodges.

Having a highly-trained leader for your safari, who in addition to seeing to your health and safety, gets to know your likes, dislikes, food preferences, dietary needs, what animals you’ve already seen, and what you especially want to see, makes a big difference.

• Our Network Is Simply The Best. Micato is connected with topflight security and advisory networks in the U.S. and Africa. Our general manager in East Africa is a Member of the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kenya, and works closely with the U.S. ambassador and government officials. Felix and Jane Pinto—who consider their guests extended family members—and their management team live in Africa, with the network and resources to anticipate and respond to situations quickly. Our team has their finger on the pulse of what’s happening.
• Your Safari Director = Chief Health and Safety Officer. If a safari camp or lodge or anyone anywhere along the way is not observing health and safety and protocols in line with Micato standards, your Safari Director will quickly remedy the situation, leaving you free to enjoy your safari without having to concern yourself with such matters.
• Your Micato Concierge = At your service 24/7. Your team on safari includes Micato’s 24/7 Concierges based at your hotel—like the Kempinski and Hemingways hotels in Nairobi, the Saxon in Johannesburg, and The One&Only in Cape Town.

If You Become Ill During Your Micato Safari

If you show obvious symptoms of illness—cough, runny nose, sneezing, etc—you may be asked to wear a mask in enclosed spaces, meaning within the confines of a shared safari vehicle with other guests as well as hotels, restaurants, and other common interior spaces. If while on safari you begin to have basic symptoms that do not show—fever, sore throat, a headache or body ache that feels out of the ordinary, etc—we ask that you inform your Micato Safari Director.

• If you do show symptoms of illness, we may ask you to isolate yourself from other travellers, including at mealtimes: at the discretion of your Micato Safari Director, your meals may be served to you separately from the others in your group.
• If your symptoms require it—or, once again, at our discretion—we will try our best to connect you with a healthcare professional either in person or remotely.
  • There are good-quality medical facilities in Nairobi, and Micato founders Felix and Jane Pinto have lived there for so long that they—and the Micato staff in Africa—have well-established relationships with the best physicians. In South Africa, Cape Town boasts world-class hospitals.
  • In more remote locations of East Africa, you are assured of the services of the Flying Doctors—a group of well-qualified physicians who travel by aircraft throughout the bush to provide treatment and transportation in East Africa.
  • Similar emergency medical evacuation services are available in South Africa and select lodges in Botswana. This assures Micato guests of prompt medical attention and air transportation in the unlikely event that an emergency should arise.
  • Many of the camps and lodges Micato guests visit on safari also have an on-staff physician to tend to minor cuts, scrapes, and ear infections.
• Following the professional’s advice, you may be asked to be tested for whatever illnesses are suspected: Covid, flu, strep throat, mononucleosis, etc. Micato will schedule and facilitate all required in-country testing.
• If you test negative, depending upon the advice we receive, we may ask you to continue to wear a mask indoors, social distance responsibly within your safari group, and other basic precautions.
• If you test positive for an illness, we will ask you to follow the current CDC guidelines, which may require you to wear a mask, social distance, and go into isolation.
• Micato reserves the right at our sole discretion to alter, suspend, or end your journey at any time if we feel your continued presence on safari with us is detrimental to the health and safety of your fellow travellers and our team.

If you do travel with Micato, We thank you ahead of time for following our health protocols during your safari. Please keep in mind that Micato successfully operated luxury safaris during the height of the Covid pandemic—and we used many of the same health and safety protocols during the peak of Covid as the health protocols outlined in this letter. Our goal, always, is to ensure your safety, the safety of our other Micato guests, and our staff.