To stroll the streets of Cuba—to hear the rumbling engines of its 1950s automobiles, the jazz, and the rumba—is to travel back in time, to see jaw-dropping natural beauty and the artists, musicians, and folklore of legends.

With access few others have had, Cynthia Carris Alonso has spent twenty years capturing Havana’s crumbling, baroque splendor. Her photographs celebrate the dreamy palette of Cuba—salmon pink, sky blue, apricot, aqua green—and reveal the contrast between patina homes; peeling stucco apartments; and the great Capitol Building, Havana Cathedral, and Hotel Nacional.

With Passage to Cuba, Alonso opens the doors to an exquisite but rarely seen place. So take a stroll along the Malecón seawall; marvel at the dancers with their colorful, ornate costumes; lose yourself in José Fuster’s spellbinding mosaic designs; or simply relax in the warm sun of the countryside, where the calm, aging fishermen spend their days and where Ernest Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea.

This keepsake volume is a breathtaking tribute to a land with a complex history. It’s a lush, vibrant collection of photographs and a road map to use to embark on a remarkable odyssey.