Iqaluit (Aug 11/03) - Eye-catching red, blue, green, and orange siding signal something is very special about Iqaluit's only public bus.

It looks like something a gaggle of circus clowns is about to tumble out of any minute.

As it rolls through town each hour, arriving at the four corners 10 minutes past the hour, every hour during the week, children wave vigorously at it. Everyone who sees it smiles.

"We just go for a ride," said Simata Naglingniq, riding the bus on Friday afternoon with her two sons, Tommy, 9, and Pauloosie, 7. "They call it the Rainbow bus."

For $2 a ride she takes her boys, or her nieces or nephews, sight-seeing, even though she was born and raised here.

The young mother knows stories about all the lakes and streams in Iqaluit, and where the best berry picking spots are. She points to them as the bus winds through the streets.

Simata likes being able to see for miles and miles out the windows, and think about how while the city has changed, some things never will.

"See that long white line in the rock?" she says, pointing a white line of snow on distant mountain.

"When that looks like it has a crack, my Aunt always said that means the berries are ready to be picked."

For her kids, the ride is not unlike a kiddie ride at an amusement park.

There are some big bumps along the way. The driver on this day is Delmar Gordon.

"I've been the driver since day one," Gordon said confidently.

Gordon still gets a kick out of the job, and looks forward to the spiffy new bus, arriving in a month or so. Iqaluit didn't have a bus until the 1980s.

Back then, the bus was a dull black colour -- nothing like the "rainbow bus" her kids now love, Simata explained.

Bus riders in Iqaluit are often people without vehicles, like Simata (who usually borrows a family member's if she has to) or people who want to see the sights on a nice day, or the city in a new way.

When the trip comes to an end back at the four corners, Simata isn't sure if she will be getting off the bus.

Her kids may want to go around again.

"They love it," she said.