Sizzling San Juan's got it goin' on

SAN JUAN -- It would take a football team's offensive line to clear a path though the chandeliered lobby of the El San Juan Hotel & Casino on this summer Saturday at midnight.

Hip-swiveling dancers are undulating on almost every available patch of sienna-hued marble: sequined, skin-baring beauties in town for a salsa convention, mojito-swilling party people down from New York, booty-shaking Puerto Rican grandmas, even a man inexplicably attired in a feathered Indian headdress.

Taking a break at one of the lobby bars with her husband and sister, Xiomara Bowes explains the island mentality to a visitor.

"Puerto Ricans are raised with music all around them. I learned to dance in my mom's belly," says the vivacious 43-year-old with swinging gold earrings.

Islanders' passion for percussion-driven, trumpet-accented song infuses the new movie El Cantante ("The Singer"). The music is the real star of this biography of late Puerto Rican salsa hero Héctor Lavoe, played by Marc Anthony. In the film, Lavoe and wife Puchi (Jennifer Lopez) lead a dancefest in the cobbled streets of Old San Juan.

In real life, too, salsa, merengue, reggaetón and hip-hop spill out of San Juan clubs, hotel lobbies and bars seven nights a week. A trumpet player riffing on a street corner or a toddler boogeying on the beach aren't uncommon sights.

Known as one of the liveliest cities in the Caribbean, San Juan pulsates with non-stop nightlife. Slot machines ka-ching in the wee hours at casinos, the drinking age is 18, and partying is a local pastime.

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Because the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, no passport is needed to jet down on a whim for a weekend.

Miguelito Rodriguez — pharmacy owner in nearby Arecibo by day, salsa instructor by night — gets calls from hotel concierges and from tourists who have read about him in various publications.

"People come from everywhere to dance salsa," he says. "They want to know something they don't really have in their part of the world." Rodriguez, 50, offers private lessons for a reasonable $30 an hour for two. He also maintains a website dedicated to the island's salsa scene (noti-salsa.com) and makes the rounds of dance spots.