Ask for the route you need
You have the name of a place in Cuba, but a location question alone may not tell you how to walk there. ¿Dónde está el mercado? asks where the market is. ¿Cómo llego al mercado a pie? makes the walking route explicit. Start with Disculpe if you are approaching someone you do not know.
The dialogues below are original practice, not verified directions to a real shop. Learn the question with a destination you can name or show. If there are two places with similar names, confirm which one you mean before trying to follow the answer.
Listen for cuadra and esquina
In street directions, a cuadra is a block; an esquina is a corner. If you hear dos cuadras, the number matters. Keep it together with the instruction: Siga dos cuadras. Do not convert the phrase into a precise distance in metres: the actual street layout still matters.
A corner can be the point where an action changes. En la próxima esquina means “at the next corner”; en la segunda esquina means “at the second corner.” Practise those as two different instructions. If you lose count or cannot identify the corner, ask again rather than silently choosing one.
Recognise the action before the landmark
Siga recto tells you to continue straight. Doble a la derecha tells you to turn right. Cruce la calle tells you to cross the street. Listen for the action and then its destination or limit. In Siga hasta la farmacia, the pharmacy marks how far to continue.
You may hear different forms: sigue and dobla with tú, or siga and doble with usted. The route does not change because the form changes. Recognising both helps you follow instructions without stopping to translate every ending. Our tú and usted guide explains the choice of address in more detail.
Place the destination beside something visible
Está al lado de la panadería places it beside the bakery. Está enfrente de la panadería places it opposite the bakery. A landmark helps only when you have identified the same building as the speaker. You can ask ¿Esa panadería? while indicating the one you mean.
Notice the difference between turning at a landmark and finding the destination there. Doble en la esquina is an action; está en la esquina is a location. Keep the verb in your notes. A list containing only esquina, farmacia and derecha loses the route connecting those words.
Confirm the next step in a complete exchange
Original practice dialogue: —Disculpe, ¿cómo llego al mercado a pie? —Siga dos cuadras y doble a la izquierda. Está al lado de la farmacia. —¿Dos cuadras y después a la izquierda? —Sí, al lado de la farmacia. The visitor checks the distance and turn together, then hears the landmark again.
The exchange tells you a sequence: continue, turn, identify. It does not tell you opening hours or how long the walk takes. Ask those separately if you need them. When several instructions are too much to hold at once, ¿Cuál es la primera calle? can help you establish the first step.
Check which side and which order
Right and left only help when you know the starting direction. If the person giving directions is facing you, copying their hand movement can be confusing. Ask ¿A mi derecha? while making your own orientation clear. You are checking the perspective before walking, rather than trying to repair a route after the first wrong turn.
Now compare Doble antes de la farmacia and Doble después de la farmacia. The building is the same, but the turn is on a different side of it along your route. Mark the pharmacy on your practice map and draw both alternatives. This makes antes de and después de visible instead of leaving them as translations to memorise.
For a final check, read Siga una cuadra, cruce la calle y doble a la derecha. Put the three actions in order before drawing the route. If you turn first, you have changed the instruction. Once you can reach your imaginary market, use our market-shopping guide to practise the next conversation: asking for an item, choosing a quantity and confirming the total.
Practise with a small invented map
Draw two streets, a corner, a bakery and a market on paper. Give a partner a starting point and explain the route in Spanish. Let them trace the instructions. If they arrive somewhere else, compare the action words and landmarks; the exercise reveals what was unclear.
Then swap derecha and izquierda, or change una cuadra to dos cuadras, and try again. Use the clarification guide when you need a question repeated. If your journey requires a guagua or a car rather than a walk, continue with Cuban transport vocabulary: that guide focuses on vehicles, routes, stops and fares.