Challenge: Get Andean crop, animals to North America

The Andean people had a number of technologies which would be very advantageous to the North Americans. The Llamas and Alpacas for a start, but also the potato, quinoa, and peanut. The latter did make as far north as the Aztecs. Finally terra preta was also known in some parts of Ecuador and Peru.

The trouble is the Andeans had practically no contact with North America. What would be the easiest, most plausible way for the aforesaid technology package to make their way north, and be as ubiquitous as possible?
 
Jared Diamond has a passage or three in his book where he touches on this. The gist of it is that, climatically, it isn't terribly easy for, say, a given plant to spread north-south, as opposed to east-west.

I think you really need some sort of vague trading network. maybe some nation in peru or ecuador starts sailing up towards mesoamerica?
 
The best route for llamas and crops is the sea route. IOTL there was some trade between Northern Perú and Panama through these means. The Spanish under Pizarro were surprised to find a raft with a sail in the middle of the Pacific. I think it was carrying textiles and alpaca leathers or something like that. The Spanish hadn't seen any similar ship in the Americas, and were very surprised.

Also, when the Spanish first reached Darién (in Panama) they found a tribe that told them that if they were seeking for gold they should look south. They told them there were people who had ships "just like theirs" and that had domesticated animals (which, based on the drawings they made, the Spanish mistook for donkeys). How would these Indians in Darién know how llamas looked like?

The problem seems to be that currents make trips northwards very difficult after Panamá, as the currents turn westwards. I don't know about winds, though...

Concerning crops, bear in mind that maize did traverse the ithsmus, albeit southwards. It took thousands of years, but it did. And knowledge of metalurgy crossed the itsmus in an opposite direction. So the ithsmus isn't us umpenetrable as we might think...
 
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