Rumbo

Rumbo is a useful word that I never learned in Spanish class. In the singular, it's basically an informal word for destination. Caminar sin rumbo fijo means walk without going anywhere in particular. A useful formula is rumbo a + place. Vive en las afueras de Puebla, rumbo a México. He lives on the outskirts of the city Puebla, on the Mexico City side. If you drove out of Puebla towards Mexico City, you'd pass his house as you leave. So rumbo a means in the direction of.

Rumbos

In the plural, rumbos refers to some kind of geographical area, for example, a city block, a neighborhood or even an entire city. It usually expresses the speaker's attitude of familiarity, affection or contempt toward that area. Let's look at some examples to get an idea of how it is used.

• Mis rumbos. The area where I often hang out, where you can often find me. I know this neighborhood like the back of my hand.
• Mis viejos rumbos. Where I used to live, work, party or spend a lot of time. My old haunts, my old stomping grounds.
• Nos vamos para mejores rumbos. Let's go to a better area, greener pastures.
• Esos rumbos son muy peligrosos. The area you just mentioned is on the wrong side of the tracks.

As you can see from the English glosses, this is a somewhat informal word. To up the level of formality a bit, you could substitute zona: Esa zona es muy peligrosa.