granadaforo

You are correct.

The Spanish J is pronounced a bit like an H.

Tecnically speaking it is a voiceless velar fricative and only exists in English in the word loch said with a Scottish accent.

Voiceless means the larynx is not vibrating.
Velar refers to the back of the mouth, almost in the throat.
Fricative means a sound made by vibrarions due to air being forced through a small space.

For an English speaker this may be a bit dificult to do perfectly and in the case of pronouncing Nerja
you may find it easier to say it with a K saying Nerka.

If you say Nerja with a K Spanish people will understand you but it is still not quite right.

To say it correctly you have to say Nair - ha not Nair - ka

Spanish pronunciation is not that difficult but unless you are a native speaker you will always sound like a "guirri"

(a "guirri" is the Spanish slang word for a foreigner. It is only very mildly offensive)

To learn Spanish pronunciation it is best to  have a look at a prounciation guide which has real sounds

There is one here.
http://lingolex.com/pronounce/

Click on this link to see a list of Hotels in Nerja.

http://www.hotelscombined.com/City/Nerja.htm?a_aid=21422

When I first came to Spain everyone smoked, even in the supermarket.

The next few weeks are going to be very tough for smokers.

Maybe now is the time to give up. I have saved over 30 000 euros since I gave up.

I have been reading the El Pais newspaper and the following is a brief summary of the new law based on a article.

Anti-smoking law

The sense of the new anti smoking law can be summarised in the following sentence.
"It is forbidden to smoke in shared closed spaces"

There are some exceptions:

Closed spaces where you can smoke.
In hotel rooms or hostals smoking must only be allowed in a maximum of 30% of the rooms. In the establishments where it is permitted to smoke it is only possible to smoke in the rooms, not in the corridors, hallways, lift, reception etc.

It will be possible to have smoking area in prisons and mental homes but not in the bedrooms.

It is permitted to smoke on the deck of a ship but not in an open air bus.

You can smoke in open air swimming pools, gardens, sports grounds or on the beach.

In private parties such as weddings or baptisms  it is not possible to smoke because there will be waiters and other personel working there.

Fines
The individual who smokes can get up to a 30 euro fines for the first offence after the third time the fine will be between 601 and  100.000 euros. The owner of a public place such as a bar or disco can be liable for fines of between 601 and  100.000 euros.

First I will tell you some info about olives.

It seems like almost everyone in Andalucia has someone in the family who has a piece of land with a few olives.
Almost all Andalucians will have at some point been requisitioned into helping with the olive harvest.
The olives are picked from the start of December to the end of February.
Nets are places around the bottom of the trees and the olives are bashed off with sticks or by hand.

Most villages of any size have a 'cooperativa' which is where the villagers bring their olives to be pressed and made into oil.
Making oil from olives is a time consuming process which needs heavy machinery so most people prefer to take their olives to the cooperative.
It is possible to take either money or oil in exchange for olives. Most people prefer to take oil because the amount of money offered is so low. (A kilo of olives are only worth about 30 cents) 100 kilos of olives would normally produce about 20 litres of oil. In the supermarket you can get 5 litres of oil for about 12 Euros. Really good cold pressed olive oil sells for about 3-4 Euros per litre. When people bring their olives to the cooperative a few are taken at random  as a sample and sent to a lab to be tested. The value of the olives depends on the acidity.

Most of the modern cooperatives use centrifugal systems to extract the oil in a semi-industrial process. The more traditional method is to first grind the olives into a paste using massive conical olive stones then to spread the paste onto mats which are then put into a press.

At modern cooperatives there is not a lot to see. Just the people lining up to dump their olives into the pit before having the leaves blown off and then weighed. However there is a very traditional olive cooperative between Diezma and Darro just off the road from Granada to Guadix. They have recently revived an old olive cooperative that has been running since 1915. They don't mind if you put your head around the door and watch the process. The olive oil they produce is very 'basto' in effect meaning strong flavoured and a little murky. It's absolutely brilliant drizzled over a few tomatoes or a salad. Ask them to sell you some, they have 2 litre or 5 litre containers.  
If you want to go there the name is Santa Casilda just go to Darro and ask for directions.

Contact details are:
Ctra. Arroyo de los Villares, s/n
18181 DARRO (Granada)
Teléfono y fax: 958 680 321
Móviles: 675 746 040 / 627 440 588

To see pictures and more info click on this link
http://granadablog.net/?p=730    






 

It would be excellent if a really good carpooling site existed.

I have done some searching on internet and have come up with the following.

viajamosjuntos
Notes: This site is only in Spanish. It seems to have some one off journeys and people who do a regular route.
After looking at many sites it appears to be the best.

This is what a simple search of Madrid to Granada comes up with.

08-12-2010    09:00      Zaragoza  ?  Granada
08-12-2010    12:00      Burgos  ?  Granada
17-12-2010    --              Madrid  ?  Granada
diario    --      Madrid  ?  Granada
los viernes    --      Madrid  ?  Granada
los viernes    19:00      Madrid  ?  Granada

Website
http://www.viajamosjuntos.com/

Roadsharing
Notes: They do list some lifts in Spain but none involving Granada

Website
http://www.roadsharing.com

Other websites
http://www.ekoroad.com/