What happens when a well-known YouTuber reports that they found "Neverland" in your country? You start a tourism campaign to promote awareness.
That is exactly what the Belize Tourism Board has done, capitalizing on a YouTube video from The Film Theorists that says the Turneffe Atoll is home to the fictional fantasyland that Peter Pan was so fond of and where no one has to grow up.
Belize is celebrating the "discovery," with a contest to bring a real-life Peter and Wendy to the Turneffe Atoll. Here's how it works: If your name is Peter, find a friend named Wendy, and email: BelizeNeverland@gmail.com with them on the CC line (and vice versa if your name is Wendy).
That's all there is to it. Any Peter and Wendy (in the U.S. over the age of 18) have between now and next Monday, May 14, 2018, when the Belize Tourism Board will pick one duo at random to send on a free five-day vacation to the destination.
While the contest may seem frivolous in nature, the actual realization of where Neverland is located is not just something pulled from a hat. The Film Theorists took evidentiary steps to "definitively locate" the elusive destination.
They detail the discovery in four steps.
First, that, when the children fly out of their London window, they are flying southwest, based on the locations of the Elizabeth Tower and Westminster Bridge. This means, the Film Theorists say, that they were traveling to North or South America.
They also note the map.
"The first overhead shot of Neverland reveals that it's a small island with lagoons and inlets," the Film Theorists point out.
This means it must be an "atoll lagoon" and not a coastal one. This narrowed the choices to a range of land from South Florida down to the coast of Brazil.
Three, The Film Theorists' video considers the wildlife.
"Since Captain Hook was able to fit inside the crocodile's mouth, that means it had to be an American crocodile (vs. Morelet's), which is found in salt waters, narrowing the search to the Caribbean," they write.
Finally, you have to look at the characters. Since Captain Hook was Blackbeard's Boatswain and Blackbeard was a real-life pirate who once captured ships in the Gulf of Honduras right off the Yucatan Peninsula-specifically Belize's Turneffe Atoll-you need only turn to history to make a final determination.
And as it turns out, Turneffe Atoll is a little tropical atoll with lagoons and American crocodiles (and sea turtles, flamingos and manatees for that matter).
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