On our first day in Easter Island we went to see some of the famous stone heads. They are huge, much bigger than they look in the pictures. They hold the spirit of someone who has died. They face inland, and watch over the village the person lived in. If the neck breaks, the spirit escapes and makes the family weaker. In wars, they would tip each others' statues over so the necks broke. The area around the statues was paved with stone. The statues also sit on stone bases. In one place the stone base is as good as Inca show quality stone work. When Captain Cook came, he saw the fine stonework and thought there must be gold there. So he blew a hole in the platform only to find there was no gold. Some of the statues have red stone hats on them. The best statues are at a beach. They tipped over not long after they were made and got buried in sand. They were only discovered and put up again a few years ago so they are in perfect condition. One of them is missing an earlobe because it was broken off by a man who wanted to compare it to the statues in his country 9 months ago.
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