Tell your friends that you’ve been on a trip to Mexico in midwinter, and they’re likely to ask which coast you’ve visited. But Mexico is a big country, with plenty of charming areas that are nowhere near surf or sand. One of these is the mountain town of Tepoztlan in the state of Morelos, which is about as far as one can get from the tourist-thronged honkytonks of Cancun and Acapulco.

Approaching on Highway 115 leading southeast about an hour’s drive from Mexico City, one begins to understand the appeal of Tepoz, as it’s known to locals: The hilly hamlet is surrounded by the irregular Tepozteco mountains, offering warm days and cool evenings, beautiful vistas, and a rich history. In 2002 Mexico’s tourism secretariat named the town one of 32 “magical villages,” or pueblo magicos, around the country, due in part to the legend that holds it to be the birthplace of Quetzalcoatl, the ancient Aztec feathered serpent god. The spiritually inclined still congregate here to soak up the vibes, or perhaps to indulge in a temazcal, or sweat bath, said to cure any number of physical ills and induce a sense of well-being. What to Do

Everyone else can enjoy a range of activities, from absorbing the area’s natural beauty to viewing archeological wonders and Mexican art, taking cooking or writing classes, shopping for handicrafts, enjoying the local cuisine, or observing one of the near-continuous fiestas.

The area’s foliage is lush even in midwinter: Bougainvillea and huge poinsettia adorn most every yard and patio. There are birds of every description, from tiny hummingbirds and goldfinches to squawking grackles and the vermillion flycatcher.

High above the town is the Tepozteco pyramid, a strenuous 1.3-km, one-hour hike away. Dating from around 1100 A.D., the small edifice here was erected to the god of pulque, a milky alcoholic beverage made, like tequila, from the agave plant. Stone benches and ancient carvings adorn the site. The view of the town below is dramatic.

Drive 45 minutes south to see the even more impressive ruin of Xochicalco (dating from 200 B.C., with its most notable structures from 1000 A.D.), famous for its sizable pyramids, three ball courts, relief carvings of ancient dignitaries, and a much-speculated-about observatory.

On the way back from Xochicalco is the now-sprawling city of Cuernavaca, which features a range of cultural and commercial institutions, including the recently completed Centro Cultural Muros, a museum featuring contemporary artworks, and the Mexican art collection of Jacques and Natasha Gelman. Notable pieces include works of Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, Frida Kahlo, and Maria Izquierdo. Also of interest is the Robert Brady Museum, a former private home that is chock-full of the work of the same Mexican luminaries, along with colonial religious sculpture, African artifacts, and an over-the-top bedroom once frequented by chanteuse and Brady pal Josephine Baker.

Back in Tepoz, visitors can choose among reasonably priced local crafts from a number of shops. The museum shop at the Convento Dominico de la Natividad (pictured above), which is a World Heritage Site, is especially good. Tepoz also has a good English-language bookstore, La Sombra del Sabino, which does a nice side business in arranging day trips on horseback.

If your interests tend to the culinary, Cocinar Mexicano offers intensive, one-week cooking classes led by local women and celebrated restaurant chefs. For the literary visitor, Under the Volcano, named for the celebrated Malcolm Lowry novel, offers creative writing workshops in English and Spanish coordinated by New Yorker Magda Bogin, a novelist and translator of The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. A range of North American literati, including novelist Russell Banks and poet and essayist Breyten Breytenbach, have taught here.

ANEW generation is champing at the bit to finish their studies and join the world of work, but when it comes to money they are like lambs to the slaughter.

Financial independence is full of risks and rewards, but as you can’t put an old head on young shoulders we spoke to recent graduates at Scottish Gas, Royal Bank of Scotland, Press Data Ltd, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, KPMG, and The Audience Business and compiled a list of things they wish someone had told them.

I wish I had known exactly how much tax and national insurance would eat into my salary.

Several of our graduate employees said they seriously underestimated the difference between their headline salary and their take-home pay and were shocked by how much is sliced off in national insurance and income tax.

In simple terms, new employees should work on the basis that they will lose one third of their gross salary before it hits their bank account.

I wish I had been told that my take-home pay would shrink come April.

Everyone has an annual tax allowance which means they are allowed to earn a set amount (currently 5,225) each year before income tax is applied. So graduates starting work in September or October will have a larger percentage of their earnings sheltered from tax in the first few months of employment. Come the start of a fresh financial year, however, their monthly take-home pay will drop, as their annual allowance will be spread over 12 months.

I wish I had been warned about the full implications of student loans.

Certain graduates felt they should have had more information about how long student loans can take to pay back and the knock-on effect on their credit rating.

Research from GFK has identified a drop-off in the number of credit cards and loans held by this age group (from 39% to 32% and 10% to 7% respectively in the last two years). This dip may provide the first evidence that access to credit is being restricted to those with high student debts.

I wish I had known my overdraft would disappear at graduation.

Some of our group were angry that their bank had transferred them into a regular account as soon as they graduated, which meant they lost their interest-free overdraft. This left them not only facing hefty interest bills on overdrafts but also feeling they could not leave their current bank because of the level of their overdraft.

It is best to ask a bank if it offers a graduate account. These will typically allow you to roll over an interest-free student overdraft into a graduate account, although these will scale back the size of an interest-free overdraft every six months or so.

A large overdraft is not necessarily a barrier to switching account provider. Nationwide, Alliance & Leicester and Lloyds TSB are among those which allow customers to transfer an overdraft.

I wish I had known that my current account was not the best place for extra cash.

Graduates fortunate enough to have cash left over at the end of the month were annoyed that their bank had not recommended setting up a savings account or cash Isa sooner. The cash Isa has the extra advantage of sheltering savings from tax.

I wish I had known that banks have different exchange rates for the same currency.

This surprised some of our group and angered others. There is an official exchange rate between sterling and other currencies, but the banks, currency bureaus and travel agents all have their own rates.

I wish I had known that credit cards charge different interest rates depending on how you use them.

Cards invariably have three interest rates. The average rate for new spending on UK credit cards at present is around 17%. However, the interest rate charged if a person instead uses their credit card to withdraw cash will be much higher, on average around 26%. Not only that, but interest will start clocking up on cash withdrawals straight away, and not after the 30 to 56-day grace period allowed for other transactions. Credit cards will also offer an interest rate for balances transferred from another card.

I wish I had realised that my credit card company did not use my monthly repayment to pay off the most expensive debt first.

Where a card has different interest rates for spending, transfers and cash, most card providers will use monthly repayments to pay off the debt attracting the lowest interest rate first.

I wish I had understood the consequences of only making the minimum repayment on my credit card each month.

Someone with a 1,000 balance on a credit card with an interest rate of 19.6% who paid only the minimum repayment of 2% each month would take 17 years to pay off their card, according to financial information group Motley Fool.

I wish I had known how much running a home actually costs.

The high costs of gas, electricity and council tax bills left some of the group stunned. Repair bills also came as an unpleasant surprise to those who had bought property. It is best to build up an emergency fund to help meet such unexpected costs.

I wish I had known how complicated mortgages can be.

Worryingly, several of our group who had purchased property said that after taking out a mortgage they were not sure they had ended up with the best deal because of the variety on offer.

First-time buyers, with little room to absorb rises in interest rates, are usually advised to opt for fixed or capped rate deals.

I wish I had known the importance of budgeting.

Most of our group felt strongly that their finances would have run a lot more smoothly had they worked out a budget from day one. This was especially true for those who admitted to consistently spending more than they earned. For those who do not know where their money is going, debt experts recommend keeping a spending diary for a month or two. Once the budget has been worked out, withdrawing what is set aside for spending, in cash, at the start of each week will help keep spending on target.

I wish I had been told to start my pension as soon as possible.

Several graduates said they wished they had had it spelt out just how dramatically their eventual pension pot would be reduced if they delayed starting their pension.

Insurance giant Prudential calculated that someone starting a pension at 25, saving 50 a month until they retired at 65, would have built up a pension pot of 57,000 (assuming a growth rate of 5%) - some 13,000 more than if they delayed starting contributions until they turn 30, and 23,000 more than if they waited to 35.

I wish I had known that I would be throwing away free money by not joining the pension scheme.

Young workers who delay starting their pension are also missing out on valuable contributions from the government, which makes a pension one of the most tax-efficient ways to save for your retirement. For basic-rate tax payers, every 1 invested in their pension will normally only cost them 78p, as the difference is made up in tax relief. On top of this, those working for a large employer will invariably find that their employer will also contribute into their pension fund.

I wish I had known that asking for advice can be hugely useful.

Some of our group wished they had realised that their parents and grandparents have decades of experience when it comes to money. More than one commented that they simply did not listen when parents offered advice, only to regret it later.

I wish I had known where to get impartial financial advice.

A multi-tied adviser will be able to compare products from up to a dozen providers, while an independent financial adviser can search the entire market for the best product. Website http://www.unbiased.com can help locate one.

The series of data security breaches that has seen the personal details of tens of millions of people lost is pushing Britain to a “tipping point” over how such records are handled, the information commissioner said today.

Richard Thomas demanded “clearer accountability” and responsibility from organisations holding personal records following the loss of files by various government departments and public bodies.

He was speaking as the NHS chief executive, David Nicholson, insisted that patients’ medical records were not at risk after it emerged at the weekend that nine health trusts had lost records of 168,000 people.

Nicholson said the security of the NHS patients’ database was “way beyond” that used for internet banking.

Today, the Post Office said it had «www.guardian.co.uk» to thousands of pensioners after scores of customers were sent the wrong account statements.

Thomas, in a veiled criticism of the government, said failure to keep personal information secure put organisational credibility at risk and undermined public confidence and trust.

“Right across the piece people here have got to take personal information a great deal more seriously. In the last few months people have got to a tipping point where they are suddenly taking data protection far more seriously,” Thomas told the BBC’s Today programme.

“What this has brought home to everybody is the importance of clear accountability and responsibility to make sure to get it right.”

He warned data protection was about “credibility” and not just complying with the law.

The loss of medical records was “particularly sensitive” given the confidentiality enshrined in the doctor-patient relationship, he said.

Thomas has raised concerns with NHS managers about the government’s Connecting for Health project, which is intended to make patients’ records accessible by computer to NHS professionals across the country.

“They have got to be absolutely certain they have identified all the risks and are managing these very carefully indeed. Any mass loss of data from centralised databases would be very catastrophic, but medical information is of particular sensitivity,” he said.

Nicholson insisted that Connecting for Health would rely not on a single centralised database, but on linked regional databases, which he said would enhance security. Clinicians and other NHS employees would be able to access details only with a secret user name, password and smartcard, and access would be “role-controlled” so that each user saw only a relatively small number of patient records relevant to their specific area of work.

“There are risks in all this,” Nicholson acknowledged. “This is a level of security way beyond what you have in internet banking, for example.

“We are listening to what people say about security and we have a level of security now being built into the system which is way beyond industry standard as far as healthcare is concerned.”

Nicholson said the lost NHS data came to light after he wrote to all trusts two weeks ago asking them to look at their governance arrangements on data protection.

Professor Ross Anderson, a computer security expert at Cambridge University, criticised systems allowing an entire database to be accessed by one individual.

“The question is not whether the data was encrypted or password-protected but the deeper question of why is it that somebody has access to 160,000 children’s records. Surely that’s not right.”

The NHS revelations prompted the Tory shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, to call for the planned single database of 50 million patient files to be scrapped in favour of a network of local ones.