bus from Tarifa to Nerja

Rome2Rio is a good source for high-level information on what modes of transportation are available from Point A to Point B. Do not trust its transit times or its fare information, but it's pretty reliable about the existence of buses and trains. If bus service is shown, keep drilling down till you find the name of the bus company. There will usually be a link to the company's website.

Or you can just Google "Bus Tarifa to Nerja", which will usually be fruitful, though you'll often be delivered to the schedule for the return trip, instead.

In this case, rail is not an option, and I'm seeing strange bus results. Perhaps there's just a website problem. It seems that you will need to change buses in Algeciras, with the large company ALSA handling the Algeciras-Nerja part of the trip. But ALSA's website shows buses only westbound, toward Algeciras, with no returns. Which is quite odd.

This is looking like a more difficult trip than one might expect.

thank you! - I am also surprised that it is not a easy as other locations

Another bus company in that neck of the woods which we used last May is T.G.Comes. We just bought tickets the day before or sometimes even the day of. But their website was working better then than just now; I could see the schedule at least. Good luck.