After the sun and sand that was San Pedro, we headed back north and into Mexico.  Our stop was the almost mythical Mayan ruins that we call Tulum.  As a child I liked to read atlases, geography and travel books.  I do not know the exact moment that I saw a photo of Tulum, with its ruins perched on a cliff over looking the impossibly blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, but for as long as I can remember I've wanted to visit, as top 5 Bucket List to be sure.  I wont say I was disappointed but it certainly didn't live up to the high expectations I'd had but that's only due to the rubbish that litter the beach area, the rest was a perfect example of an archaeological excavation done right.  It's not a huge site so to open up everything to the Tourist market is easy, there is plenty of rain so you have these nice green grassy areas and plenty of jungle, there is a perfect wall around the 'other' 3 sides to nicely delineate the sites extents and of course there are iguana everywhere.  It is a later city for the Mayan and was inhabited when the Spanish arrived in the 15th Century and because of this a lot of the population was wiped out by war and disease.  It wasn't until 1843 that it once again became known to the 'world' after some British Archaeologists did the first season at the site and now has become the 3rd most-visited archaeological site in Mexico.  And because of this you need to get there early.  Audrey and I arrived at around 9H30 and even then there where quite a few people inside.  Audrey managed to get a couple of happy snaps off that had no-one in them which I found incredible, easily a harder thing to do than witness the lion kill earlier in the trip.  Its still a great place to visit and was well worth the wait.
Off to Playa de Carmen, the Mexican Riveria, and to enjoy 2 of the best amusement parks in Mexico, Xplor and Xcaret.  Xplor has 2 flying foxes, 2 underground rivers to canoe on, 1 underground river to swim in and 2 track to drive buggies on.  It is built around, over and in the cenotes and caves that dot the Yucatan Peninsula and gives the whole place a unique feel about it.  Xcaret is more of the same with some rivers to swim in but also has more of a 'show' feel about it.  It also has turtle, dolphins, rays, sharks and fish to watch, swim with and touch.  Once again it uses the land to perfection and where ever you walk you are surrounded by jungle and/or something to see or do.  It even has its very own old Mayan ruins scattered around the park.  A few of things that we liked were the bird aviary, the jaguar pen, the 'old' Mayan village complete with cemetary and the piece-de-resitance, the 2 hour show at the end of the day, which to me was on a par with anything else that I've seen before, that's including Puy-de-Fou in France (often described as the world's best)
The off days were spent exploring Playa-de-Carmen which seems like a really nice place to be a tourist at.  We did however chose the wrong season to be in the water as it was rough the whole time that we were there, not all that inviting really, and full of stinky seaweed.
Christmas Day was spent doing nothing.  Just a little walk up and down 5th Avenue, some lunch, a little window shopping, refusing the offers of drugs and then back to the Hotel to chillax.