what's your point?

One of the challenges (and blessings) of driving in Mexico are direction signs.

They are simultaneously a challenge and a blessing because getting lost on long-range journeys is almost guaranteed. And any journey that does not include at last a few minutes of being lost is not an adventure.

Before the state of Jalisco built the ring road south of Guadalajara, on my journeys from Barra de Navidad to San Miguel de Allende, I had to drive into the central part of Mexico's second largest city. That was not too bad because most of the trip was on thoroughfares.

That was true as long as I did not miss one very important turn. Using the Mexico red guide map and direction signs should have made transiting Guadalajara a snap. On the advice of a fellow blogger, all I had to do was follow the "Mexico City" signs.

On my first trip, I learned to my cost that the sole major shift from one thoroughfare to the other held no clue where the Mexico City route went. It did give me an opportunity to get acquainted with a portion of the city I had not planned on touring. When I switched over to GPS, I dumped the red guide and was happier for it.

We do not have any major route choices like that in Barra de Navidad. But all small beach towns everywhere in the world seem to have their own idiosyncratic traffic eccentricities. One of ours is the street on the sand bar that gives Barra de Navidad its name.

The malecon access road is a one-way loop. When drivers enter the loop, they have a choice to make -- continue driving straight or turn to the right. Even though driving straight is the more intuitive choice, drivers who choose it will come front-bumper to front-bumper with oncoming traffic. Turning right is the correct option.

There is a small arrow tacked high on a building at that corner. I am willing to bet a large number of driver do not see it. Why do I say that? Because on most of my visits to the malecon, I will see at least one car obstructing the bowels of the loop. Or maybe the driver is doing his best impression of a Copper River salmon.

Someone with apparent authority to do such things decided the intersection needed more clarity in providing guidance. A street-yellow arrow now adorns the intersection, guiding traffic up the hill.

It is a good idea, and one I heartily endorse. The lack of a large arrow certainly was not the worst local problem, but it is still helpful.

I am just not certain how long the arrow will survive. Now and then, yellow paint shows up on the streets here. Topes (those denture-jarring speed bumps) are a common canvas.

But the paint fades faster than my memory of popular music. Within weeks, sometimes days, the paint will wear through from the friction of tires. If you take a close look at the new arrow, it is already wearing through. It may survive for some of the early summer tourists (who are starting to arrive in noticeable numbers), but the winter tourists will have only this and similar photographs to know that once upon a time a yellow arrow lived below a big tree.

My snarkier side cannot help wondering if someone's brother-in-law owns the Temporary Paint Company.

Unless the arrow is re-painted in November, I doubt many of you will get to see it.

Enjoy a good idea before it fades.