BELIZE — You can fly! You can fly, you can fly all the way to Neverland, the island of eternal youth from ‘Peter Pan’, which has just been found off the coast of Belize.
That’s right, Neverland actually exists, says The Film Theorists, who compared star constellations, lagoon descriptions, crocodile species and real-life pirates mentioned in J.M. Barrie’s book and the 1953 animated movie to pinpoint the exact location of the fabled island. The group summarized its findings in a viral video, which has been viewed close to three million times since being uploaded earlier this month.
Using references like “second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning”, YouTube host ‘MatPat’ mapped out the flight trajectory taken by Peter, Wendy, John and Michael Darling, which took them past London’s Big Ben, across the ocean and ending at Belize’s Turneffe Atoll.
The atoll matches all the descriptors found in both the book and the movie. It’s home to American crocodile (Captain Hook was likely eaten by a large croc), it’s allegedly home to the Fountain of Youth (Peter Pan is, of course, the boy who never grew up), and Blackbeard, the legendary pirate, once captured ships off the atoll’s coast (J.M. Barrie writes that Captain Hook originally worked for Blackbeard).
It all my be circumstantial at best, but that’s not stopping the Belize Tourism Board to run – or should we say, fly – with the idea. It launched a promotional contest for U.S. residents that will give one lucky duo a free five-day vacation to the real-life Neverland.
The catch? Your names must be Peter and Wendy.
Is your name Peter or Wendy? If so, we want to send you to Neverland. In Belize that is.
That’s right. @MatPatGT discovered Neverland is just east of Belize on the Turneffe Atoll, so we are sending a real-life Peter and Wendy there on a free vacay.
BelizeNeverland@Gmail.com pic.twitter.com/xt7q5k92dD
— Belize Tourism Board (@belizevacation) May 7, 2018
For anyone else looking for a slice of Disney magic, there are several hotels on Turneffe Atoll, including Turneffe Flats, which offers seven-night diving packages with meals and airport transfers. It also offers kayaks, pool, a gym and Internet.
You think Peter and Wendy used Wi-Fi to enter themselves into the contest? We’ll have to wait and see!