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Dear teacher,

The lakeside town of Pizcuaro is one of Mexico's top Day of the Dead tourist destinations. On Nov. 1, known as the Night of the Dead, ferries crowded with tourists leave its docks for the tiny island of Janitzio in Lake Pizcuaro, where revelers:many young and from Mexico City:party among the marvelously decorated, candlelighted burial plots of the island's small cemetery. Visitors craving a more spiritual scene can still find unspoiled ceremonies in the many small villages ringing the lake.

Q : I think "The lakeside town of Pizcuaro is one of the Dead tourist destinations of Mexico's top Day" is a right word order. It is because "The lakeside town of Pizcuaro" refers to not the day but one of the destinations.

(The Day of the Dead is not Mexico's answer to Halloween, nor is it a Latin-American interpretation of All Saints' Day. the Day of the Dead is an inextricable mix of pre-Hispanic spiritualism and post-conquest Roman Catholicism.)


What do you think ?

You're misunderstanding the sentence structure:the NP 'destinations' has four adjuncts: 1. determiner Mexico's, 2. adjective 'top' , 3. first attributive NP 'Day of the Dead' 4. 2nd attributive NP 'tourist', and this is therefore the only possible word-order. It means that it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Mexico relating to the Day of the Dead celebrations.

Your rephrased version makes it sound as if the tourists themselves are dead!!