These days it’s surprising how you get used to being in contact with people who are thousands of miles away at the push of a mouse button. Or carrying on a conversation by SMS text message via buttons on a mobile phone. Or even a plain old phone conversation.

It’s almost accepted that no matter where you are on the planet you can immediately “PhoneHome”, call up the mothership, download your email or update the blog without having to think about will it or won’t it work.

You get off the plane, switch on the phone and seamlessly get connected to the local carrier. Your hotel has an internet connection for guests, and wifi in every room if you’re lucky.
We expect it. And generally get it.

So when your daughter, who lives in the desert anyway but you see online almost daily, goes off on her travels and says ‘don’t expect to hear from me for a few days’ it’s a bit of an odd thing.

True to her word there has been nothing for the last few days. No email, no text message, no blog posts or Facebook updates. And she travels with a laptop and a Blackberry, so where the hell is she?

Well she’s on a desert island off the coast of Nicaragua that is so damn small it’s merely an out of focus blob on Google Earth. It has no electricity beyond generators at the various lodges, and no phones, landline or cellular.

But it does have internet, albeit for only 3 hours a day, via satellite. Probably a tad expensive to use which explains why we haven’t heard a dicky bird from her this week.