After drying off from white water rafting and cataloging those great photos of the howler monkeys spotted in the rain forest, it’s time to settle in. Adventure tends to become low on the list of “things-to-do” after a few years of living in a new land.

And one of the most challenging - and laughable - adventures I face every day is: What is the best way to mop? When I moved here, I actually had a premonition that I wouldn’t be able to find the mops I liked. When I’d unpacked my mop from the container, the maid looked at it as if it was a strange beast. Since she did most of the mopping, it got used seldom, rotted, and eventually thrown out. Oh, how I’d love to have it back again.

Mopping the floors in Costa Rica involves cut up rags with a hole in it. I perhaps will never figure out how to put the paño on correctly. As I swish the wet rag across the floor, the wooden mop handle scratches - a sound revealing my utter incompetence. This may all seam petty, but in a world where we live outside - even when we’re inside - the art of mopping up after ourselves becomes paramount in maintaining some semblance of peace (and cleanliness). Ants appear in an hour to tiny bits of food; cockroaches tend to die upside, over night and wait to be swept away in the morning, and a sticky film is sure to build after even just one meal. It’s a very important issue in our adventure filled life.

The women that have, and still do, clean for me have the mop issue down. I am always amazed and in awe. Their mops never scrape against the ceramic and after they’ve finished, they always leave behind a sparkling floor. When I’ve finished, it looks like I never mopped in the first place. Then, after the job is finished, the wet, sticky, smelly, dirty rag must be removed and washed. Even if the Costa Rican way of mopping is better, I will never, ever, get used or like touching that thing.

Those mops I like are available, but they cost an awful lot. And when a cut up rag can do the trick, maybe that’s been the way to go all along. I still have a quite a lot to learn about getting along in paradise.