For me the 'caminhão' remains as a nostalgic memory. When I was young, the caminhão was the popular mode of public transportation in Goa. Most of these buses were privately owned. I recall travelling on these buses right from childhood to my early teens to various places in Goa - visiting relatives, attending weddings and going on annual vacations to my grandmother's house in Siolim during the month of May. These vehicles were unique in character and possessed their own charm and style.

The caminhão plied from city to city and town to town, making several scheduled or unscheduled stops as it wound its way through picturesque villages, its engines whining at high pitch as it climbed the hill slopes. It made several stops along its journey - stopping for a whistle or for a loud high-pitched "rau re" from a lone passenger waiting along the way. (Konkani: 'rau' means stop; 're' is a form of address to a male).

Some of the coaches were built in Goa on imported Bedford, Ford, Chevrolet or Dodge chassis. They were quite unique in their outward appearance. Each coach had a wooden framework, a wooden panelled dark brown varnished interior, and brass sheeting with wood trim on the exterior. Some passenger seats had leather upholstery while others were made of wood. The design of the bus did not allow any room for standing passengers. Fitted on the roof was a 'carrier' consisting of a metal railing that would hold and transport a gamut of goods - from paddy sacks and metal trunks to firewood and bamboo baskets containing vegetable produce. The carrier also held the spare wheel and a tarpaulin cover. The rear of the bus was fitted with an iron ladder for access to the top. The driver and passenger sides had doors, with a vertically hinged passenger door at the back. Some buses had a lengthwise and parallel seating arrangement. The side windows had sliding glass panels. Some of the engines needed to be cranked up to start. Most of the 'caminhoes' (Portuguese: plural). were fitted with quaint brass blow-horns that had their own appeal and tone.

Powered by front engines and a rear wheel drive, some of these vehicles had steering column-mounted gear-change levers while others had floor-mounted gears: 3 forward and 1 reverse. The windshield consisted of two separate glass panels fitted with motorised wipers, with a dividing frame support and an overhead rear-view mirror in the centre. The instrument panel consisted of the odometer, speedometer, fuel and engine temperature gauges, and toggle switches for headlamps and windshield wipers. The headlight dipper was foot-operated, mounted on the left side of the clutch. Most of these vehicles had chrome-plated front bumpers and radiator grilles. The headlamps were mounted on top of the fenders. The front hood or bonnet consisted of
double-leaf lateral flaps with a latch. The small buses had a 2-wheel rear axle while the bigger ones had a 4-wheel rear axle.

Known generally as the 'caminhão', these buses were called 'carreira' when they plied on regular routes with apparently fixed timings. In small, medium or large sizes, they plied all over Goa. The larger ones plied on longer routes like Panjim to Margao via Ponda, Margao to Vasco da Gama, Mapusa to Betim, Mapusa to Siolim, and Mapusa to Aldona, Tivim and Bicholim. The larger models were often hired for weddings and by schools to transport their students on picnics and to football tournaments. The medium and smaller models plied from Mapusa to Calangute and Mapusa to Candolim as regular private services.

Other than the driver, the caminhao also had a conductor, called 'kilinder' in the local dialect, who was in charge of the passenger fare collection. These two caminhão operators had their own brand of communication and a private signalling system between themselves: a certain rhythmic tap on the side of the bus to reverse, a whistle here and a shout there to slow down, stop, leave, or to ignore waiting passengers, if extremely full. And as the 'caminhão' took off, the 'kilinder' would be the last to board. He had his own peculiar way and style of sitting when the bus was filled to capacity. I would describe this as placing himself just barely on the edge of the side seat at the rear of the bus, with the rear door half open, one leg inside the bus and one on the riding step. On many occasions the conductor would sacrifice his modest seat in order to make space for one more passenger. He could then be seen standing on the ladder at the back with his fists firmly gripped around the rungs. It seemed that everybody who wanted to travel somehow got on board. No one was left behind.

I would anxiously look forward to journeying on these buses. Some of the trips that I fondly remember travelling on as a young boy, were from Mapusa to Siolim with my mother, accompanying my grandmother for her annual salt water dip to Baga Beach, and a trip from Mapusa to Old Goa via Porvorim, Betim, (ferry crossing), Panjim and Ribandar for the annual feast of St. Francis Xavier.

On long journeys, passengers made friends and carried on conversations, while I happily looked outside, enjoying the beautiful scenery as the bus trundled its way through peaceful and quaint villages, serene fields and hills. I saw people sitting in the balcão of their houses, others going about their various daily chores, small way-side tea-shops, tavernas and small grocery stores, school-children walking home from school, people on bicycles, motor-cycles and bullock-carts laden with laterite brick stones, firewood and salt.

A regular unforgettable trip was when we boarded the bus at the Mapusa Praça. We young children would normally find a seat to occupy at the start of a journey, but somewhere along the way we would find ourselves sitting on a parent's lap, as the conductor pleaded with us to sit closer to one another in order to make room for more passengers waiting to be picked up en route. If one was close to the town, it was preferable to board a bus at the starting point so as to safely secure a seat, rather than wait at a roadside stop.

The caminhão was a friendly vehicle, with its distinct smell of all sorts – gasoline, old leather, wood, spices, salt fish and the occasional 'beedi' or cigarette smell. It played its part in society - families relied on it for transportation, for kids visiting relatives, for picnics and weddings and at the 'muino' and 'portonnem'. By the late fifties the first modern bus appeared on the scene plying between Mapusa and Betim, and by the early sixties, modern buses replaced most of the old 'caminhões'. The caminhão era slowly but surely came to an end as it was slowly phased out of service. Those were the days – the golden age of the caminhão that played a vital role in the public transport system of a bygone era. Today the caminhão is fondly remembered by the last of the veterans of that era as a true classic.