In the Mantaro region of the central Andes, Earle (2001: 310) notes that long distance exchange (classified as taking place over a distance of 50 km or greater, to lands beyond those held by the local ethnic group), rarely includes staple items. During the Late Intermediate and Late Horizon, items that were found in the Mantaro area include items of metal and shell described as "wealth items", emphasizing the political nature of long distance exchange in this period.
While Colca valley obsidian was primarily conveyed throughout the Titicaca Basin during prehispanic times by unspecified groups, during the colonial period Colca valley polities are known to have been dominant caravan operators in the region. Residents of the Colca valley owned large camelid herds and they were responsible for extended caravan journeys to the altiplano during the Colonial period. Documentary evidence shows that the Collaguas from the main Colca valley initiated caravans to transport products, such as Arequipa wine to Cusco and Canas, and Colca corn to "wherever they would like to sell it" (Crespo 1977: 56). A testament to the role of the Collaguas, and the Colca valley in Arequipa more generally, comes from Toledo's (1924 [1570-1575]) visita generaldescribing populations of Colca community members resettled as farmers in the new city of Arequipa, Yanahuara, and environs. Toledo states that these Collaguas mitimaesgroups should produce wine in these lower-altitude areas for transport to Cusco and to the mines of Potosí in Bolivia over 700 km to the south-east (Málaga Medina 1977: 114).
Information exchange concerning the relative barter values for goods are subsumed by the intimacy of the exchange context. In ethnographic accounts of exchange the negations occur predominantly in the privacy of domestic patio areas, and not in a public forum, such as a marketplace, where prices and equivalencies are public knowledge (Humphrey and Hugh-Jones 1992).
Caravan travel involves negotiating long distances with unforeseen delays. Due to the difficulty in scheduling encounters between caravans as highly mobile segments of the population, settled villages probably served as important nodes in the fluid regional interaction network (Dillehay and Nuñez 1988). The manner in which these temporal factors intersect with the diachronic nature of reciprocal exchange is counter to the synchronic expectations of establishing immediate, market-based equivalences for goods.
When caravan drivers do not have established trade partners in a settlement they may initiate a new trade relationship with unknown partners upon entering the community. Casaverde Rojas (1977: 177) describes how women in Cabanaconde, in the lower Colca valley, would besiege the first caravans to arrive seasonally at the village entrance with offers. The women would attempt to establish trade partner relationships by negotiating favorable terms for agricultural goods and a place to corral the caravan animals in exchange for labor and pastoral products. Nielsen (2001: 183) states that when market prices fluctuate then contemporary caravanners in Oruro, Bolivia, will sometimes avoid established trade partners in order to better pursue profit opportunities with the greater variety offered by modern market forces; the compadrazgoinstitution seems to be waning. As Danby (2002) and M. E. Smith (2004) both argue, commercialization and alienability of products in all ancient economies should perhaps best be considered in terms of degrees and not in absolutes.