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Estábamos buscando un refugio a las cinco.

Estábamos buscando un refugio a las cinco.
We were looking for shelter at five o'clock.
From Lesson 113:Past continuous (estaba -ndo)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Estábamos buscando un refugio a las cinco.

Why do we use the imperfect estábamos here instead of the preterite estuvimos?
To talk about actions that were happening in the past (the past continuous), you use the imperfect tense of estar. We use estábamos because we are describing an ongoing, continuous action at that moment in the past. The preterite estuvimos is generally used for completed events.
Why does estábamos have an accent mark?
In the imperfect tense, the nosotros (we) form of -ar verbs always has an accent mark on the first a of the ending: -ábamos. This keeps the spoken stress on the correct syllable. Without it, the pronunciation rules would shift the stress to the second-to-last syllable.
The English translation says "looking for", but where is the word for "for" in the Spanish sentence?
The Spanish verb buscar means "to look for" or "to search for" all on its own! When you use its gerund form buscando, it translates directly to "looking for." You should never add a translation for "for" (like por or para) after it.
Why do we say a las cinco instead of just a cinco?
When telling time in Spanish, you always need the feminine article (la or las) before the number. This is because the number refers to the hidden feminine word las horas (the hours). Since five is plural, we use las.

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