I was in Caracas, Venezuela in 1988 with a group from school (Theatre majors from Alabama; none of us was fluent in Spanish). I had some pads in my luggage but we were out touring the Bellas Artes district and didn't have any money with me. I was hoping to find some toilet paper or something like that, but the public restroom availability in South America wasn't that great.
Another guy in my group needed to find a bathroom to take a dump, so he and I wandered around the area, wondering what to do. I knew how to say, "Donde esta el banio," but there wasn't anybody around except for some soldiers with scary-looking guns, so I was afraid to ask them. My companion, who was very goofy, just walked right up, pointed at the museum we'd just been in and said, "El banio? El banio?" The soldier looked at him like he was nuts and said something in Spanish like, "Hell, no, that's not a bathroom! That's an art museum!"
The only bathroom we could find was in a fancy hotel in an area of the lobby reserved for registered guests. We managed to sneak in there and take care of our respective problems.
You should have said what Steve Martin said on his comedy album from the 70's. "Donde esta casa de pee pee"