mi amor: Dreaming of Tulum

My sister has always been my better half. She is my best friend in the whole world and throughout my whole life- so far and i have no doubts about the future. We are ridiculous together, lazy and whiny or motivated and fabulous, i feel infinitely loved and understood when i am with her. Which is why she is my favourite person to travel with. Although we've never done any solo traveling as adults i imagine we'd be a formidable team. Scotland in '04 (was it that long ago??) was our first experience globe-trotting as a duo and that trip will be hard to top.

So, when Kate asked me if I'd go on her impulse trip to Mexico in the spring of 2014 i couldn't really say no. We haggled over destinations and to-do's of our trip but we've decided we are going and we will drink and eat and see and explore and be lazy and return to Canada with glowing tans!

I would love to go to the little beach town of Tulum. We've been using Airbnb to scope out accommodations (how about staying in a tent, or a tree house??).

Has anyone been to Tulum, or Mexico before and have recommendations?
We have small budgets, and we don't want to feel too much like "privileged-tourists" while we are there. Things to do and places to stay that have strong environmental tract records are ideal.