Romance rests on the lips of many when visiting La Antigua Guatemala. With lush courtyards, Bougainvilleas spilling over colorful walls, and crumbling, colonial ruins, visitors often find it difficult to argue that Antigua Guatemala’s storybook setting is a bit of an aphrodisiac. But how about washing clothes? Yes, even the Guatemalteco tradition behind cleaning dirty laundry possesses a bit of romantic flair and that’s why pilas – or traditional-styled washbasins – are found scattered throughout the pueblo.
The most infamous pilas in La Antigua are those of the Tanque de la Unión. During colonial times, it served local custom for each village to have a large public washing center with public water tanks and washbasins. While offering residents a centralized place for water distribution and for washing clothes, these public washbasins also provided a happy gathering place for women where they could socialize and catch up on the latest “village gossip.” 
Often, community issues were discussed, developed and resolved at the public pilas. Tanque de la Unión was originally created for the indigenous Maya who lived on the slopes of Volcan de Agua but needed to come to the village due to water shortage. Locals were first gathered at the pilas on the 3 of February 1853. Yet, Maya women still gather there even today, echoing the traditions of the colonial past.
Many modern Maya and Ladino households also currently use smaller versions of these pilas. Smaller pilas are simply two large basins, one deep and filled with water, while the other is shallow and wide and used for washing clothes. While originally crafted from stone or concrete, modern household pilas are formed from plastic. In restaurants and more upscale houses however, larger stone pilas – which possess several broad, deep basins – are often transformed into interior decorations, becoming indoor ponds and even fountains. In La Esquina, it is hard to resist the temptation to trail one’s fingers through the scattered flower blossoms floating in the bar-restaurant’s elegant pilas.
